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CFP: THCI Special Issue on "Anthropomorphism in the Age of AI: When, What, Why and How?"

AIS Transactions on Human-Computer Interaction (THCI) invites submissions for a special issue examining anthropomorphism in contemporary human-AI interaction.

As generative AI, conversational agents, social robots, virtual humans, intelligent assistants, algorithmic advisors, and other AI-enabled systems become increasingly conversational, adaptive, relational, and humanlike, new questions arise about how people perceive, interpret, interact with, and respond to these technologies.

This special issue seeks to move research beyond documenting the effects of isolated humanlike cues toward understanding anthropomorphism as a multidimensional, dynamic, and context-dependent phenomenon. We invite research examining how anthropomorphic design cues are incorporated into AI systems, how users perceive those cues and attribute humanlike qualities to AI, and how these perceptions and attributions shape user experience, cognition, affect, trust, behavior, and relationships.

Topics of Interest

Topics of particular interest include, but are not limited to:

• Conceptualization and measurement of anthropomorphism in contemporary AI and human-AI interaction
• Anthropomorphic cues and configurations, including verbal, visual, vocal, behavioral, emotional, embodied, identity-based, and relational cues
• Psychological, affective, social, and relational mechanisms underlying responses to anthropomorphic AI
• Trust calibration, reliance, decision quality, and human-AI collaboration
• Capability alignment, expectation violations, system failures, and adverse or uncanny responses
• Dynamic and longitudinal development of anthropomorphic perceptions and human-AI relationships
• Transparency, AI identity disclosure, ethics, manipulation, privacy, dependency, and other dark-side consequences
• Responsible anthropomorphic AI design across users, tasks, cultures, and contexts
• Anthropomorphic AI in organizational and societal settings
• The appropriateness and limits of anthropomorphism as a concept, theoretical lens, and AI design strategy

The special issue welcomes diverse theoretical and methodological approaches, including experiments, surveys, field studies, qualitative research, design science research, computational methods, longitudinal designs, mixed methods, theory development, critical reviews, and opinions.

Important Dates

• Submission deadline: February 1, 2027
• First-round decision: April 15, 2027
• First-round revision due: July 15, 2027
• Second-round decision: September 15, 2027
• Second-round revision due: November 1, 2027
• Final decision: December 1, 2027
• Tentative publication date: April 2028

Full Call for Papers

For the complete special issue description, scope and topics, submission guidelines, and additional information for prospective authors, please see the full Call for Papers.

Special Issue Editors

• Yi Maggie Guo, University of Michigan–Dearborn
• Yixiu Ashley Yu, Central Michigan University

Published Special Issues:

• Flow, Immersion, and Presence (Senior Editors: Yi Maggie Guo, Fiona Fui-Hoon Nah, Nannan Xi, and Marshall Poole. Vol. 17, Issue 3)


• Metaverse (Senior Editors: Fiona Fui-Hoon Nah, Gert-Jan de Vreede, Lakshmi Goel, Eric Lim, Shu Schiller, and Chee-Wee Tan. Vol. 16, Issue 4)


• Adaptive and Intelligent Gamification Design (Senior Editors: Andreas Janson, Manuel Schmidt-Kraepelin, Sofia Schöbel, and Ali Sunyaev. Vol. 15, Issue 2)


• Human-Centered Design for Individual and Social Well-being (Senior Editors: Jia Shen, Luca Iandoli, and Miguel Aguirre-Urreta. Vol. 14, Issue 4)


• Fake News and Deception (Senior Editors: Dov Te'eni and Shuk Ying (Susanna) Ho. Vol. 14, Issue 2)


• Design Science Research in Human-Computer Interaction (Senior Editors: Marc T.P. Adam, Shirley Gregor, Alan Hevner, and Stefan Morana. Vol. 13, Issue 1)


• AI Fairness, Trust, and Ethics (Senior Editors: Lionel P. Robert Jr., Gaurav Bansal, Nigel Melville, and Thomas Stafford. Vol. 12, Issue 4)


• User Experience-driven Innovation (Senior Editors: Soussan Djamasbi and Diane Strong. Vol. 11, Issue 4)


• HCI in a Sharing Society (Senior Editors: Torkil Clemmensen, Dorina Rajanen, Mikko Rajanen, and Jose Abdelnour-Nocera. Vol. 11, Issue 3)


• Human Resource Information Systems in HCI in (Senior Editors: Richard D. Johnson, Kimberly M. Lukaszewski and Diane L. Stone. Vol. 10, Issue 5)


• HCI in Health and Wellness (Senior Editors: Vance Wilson and Soussan Djamasbi. Vol. 7, Issue 3)


• HCI in the Web 2.0 era (Senior Editors: Ozgur Turetken and Lorne Olfman. Vol. 5, Issue 1)


• User Participation/Centeredness in New Challenging IS Contexts (Senior Editors: Netta Iivari, Horst Treiblmaier, and Dennis Galletta. Vol. 4, Issue 2)


• Design Research in HCI (Senior Editors: Alan Hevner and Ping Zhang. Vol. 3, Issue 2)

Published Special Section:

• Future Directions for HCI in MIS (Senior Editors: Dennis Galletta and Ping Zhang. Vol. 2, Issue 4)