Despite the great potential of smart objects (SOs), their diffusion among consumers remains limited. Previous research on resistance to innovation cites functional, psychological, and individual barriers to consumer adoption of SOs, but it does not consider the role of SOs’ anthropomorphic features or their role as potential partners in relationships that can be referenced to interpersonal ones. We present a new theoretical lens to read consumer resistance to SOs. The new perspective is based on consumer–SO relationship literature and the fear-of-intimacy construct from the interpersonal relationship literature. The new perspective proposes that consumer resistance to SOs has a relational nature. Moreover, we support this proposition with preliminary evidence from an explorative qualitative study, based on ZMET-method interviews of non-SO users. This article reveals that consumer resistance to SOs can be read under a relational lens and shows that consumers resist adopting SOs because they experience fears related to their imagined relationships; these fears can be attributed to four negative SO social roles. This research contributes to resistance literature by suggesting that consumer resistance can have a relational nature, and to consumer–SO relationship literature, by identifying anticipated negative social roles of SOs.

中文翻译：

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当拟人化适得其反时：对负面社会角色的预期成为抵制智能对象采用的根源

尽管智能对象（SO）潜力巨大，但它们在消费者中的传播仍然有限。先前关于创新抵制的研究列举了消费者采用 SO 的功能、心理和个人障碍，但它没有考虑 SO 的拟人化特征的作用或它们作为可参考人际关系的潜在合作伙伴的作用。我们提出了一种新的理论视角来解读消费者对 SO 的抵制。新的观点基于消费者与SO关系文献以及人际关系文献中对亲密关系的恐惧建构。新观点认为，消费者对 SO 的抵制具有相关性。此外，我们通过一项探索性定性研究的初步证据支持这一主张，该研究基于对非 SO 用户的 ZMET 方法访谈。本文揭示了消费者对 SO 的抵制可以从关系的角度来解读，并表明消费者抵制采用 SO 是因为他们对想象中的关系感到恐惧；这些恐惧可归因于四种消极的社会角色。这项研究通过表明消费者抵抗可能具有关系性质，为抵抗文献做出了贡献，并通过识别 SO 的预期负面社会角色，为消费者与 SO 关系文献做出了贡献。