Supplementary file 4_Loneliness to consumption intention: emotional bonding and escapism in AI emotional companion app use.docx

However, significant indirect associations with experience-enhancing consumption intention and continuance intention emerged only through the emotional-bond pathway. Direct comparisons further showed that the relational indirect effects were significantly stronger than the avoidant indirect effects across all antecedent–outcome combinations. Escapism was significantly associated with both outcomes when modeled alone but became nonsignificant when emotional bonding was included, suggesting that its association with consumer responses largely overlaps with the relational pathway.

A partial-mediation analysis further showed that actual-ideal self-discrepancy retained a significant direct association with continuance intention. These findings suggest that relational compensation, rather than avoidant compensation, is more closely associated with willingness to pay for experience enhancement and intention to continue using AI companions. The study extends compensatory-use, self-discrepancy, and parasocial-interaction perspectives to the AI-companion context by linking psychological vulnerability to experience-enhancing consumption intention and continuance intention, while highlighting implications for responsible relational design and user protection.</p>