It Looks Like "Theirs": When and Why Human Presence in the Photo Lowers Viewers' Liking and Preference for an Experience Venue.

This article investigates how the presence of humans in photos of experiential consumption venues (such as travel destinations, wedding venues, and restaurants) affects viewers' liking and preference for those venues. Across six studies—including a large-scale analysis of 14,725 Instagram photos by a top travel influencer and five controlled experiments—the research finds that human presence in photos can decrease viewers' preference for the venue by eliciting feelings of others' psychological ownership, which conflicts with viewers' own identity-related ownership desires. This negative effect occurs primarily when the experience is relevant to the viewer's self-identity and is mitigated if the human depicted has a distinctive identity (e.g., an employee or owner) that does not compete with the viewer's identity. The findings offer theoretical insights into psychological ownership and identity signaling in marketing imagery and practical guidance for marketers on when to include or exclude humans in promotional photos to optimize consumer engagement and preference.