Positive emotional responses to anthropomorphic virtual learning assistants among university students with different levels of loneliness.

Loneliness is increasingly prevalent among university students, posing substantial challenges to their mental health and academic performance. From a positive psychology perspective, cultivating positive emotional experiences may strengthen psychological resilience and wellbeing, particularly among individuals experiencing loneliness. Although virtual learning assistants (VLAs) are widely used in higher education, prior research has focused primarily on their functionality and learning outcomes, leaving their emotional effects, underlying mechanisms, and boundary conditions insufficiently understood. Drawing upon Social Response Theory, Emotional Contagion Theory, and Social Surrogacy Theory, this study examines how anthropomorphic VLAs influence university students' positive emotions through social presence and whether loneliness moderates this process. Across four controlled experiments, anthropomorphic design incorporating visual and verbal cues was compared with non-anthropomorphic design in terms of social presence and positive emotions. The results showed that anthropomorphic VLAs elicited greater social presence and stronger positive emotions than non-anthropomorphic VLAs. Social presence mediated the effect of anthropomorphic design on positive emotions, while loneliness strengthened its effects on both social presence and positive emotions. These findings extend VLA research from an instrumental to an affective perspective, clarify the social-psychological mechanism and boundary condition underlying anthropomorphic design effects, and inform the design of emotionally supportive educational technologies for students with higher levels of loneliness.