AI Personalization and Psychological Response: Examining the Role of Obsession and Reactance

Abstract

This study explores how AI personalization in marketing impacts consumers’ mental health disorders. A mixed-method is adopted, including preliminary interviews and surveys. Our study unveils that AI-enabled personalization is positively associated with customers’ dependence on AI and mental health disorders. The central role of AI obsession has been confirmed as a key factor that might cause mental health outcomes. Finally, anxiety emerges as the strongest associated factor with psychological reactance alongside technology exhaustion, whereas the impact of fear of AI is insignificant. These results highlight concerns for ethical and moral marketing in the age of AI.