The impact of physical doll companions on solo diners’ restaurant attachment

Purpose With solo dining increasingly common, it is essential to investigate the role of restaurant practices that cater to this trend. This paper aims to explore the effect of dining with (vs without) a physical doll provided by a restaurant on solo diners’ restaurant attachment, and its underlying mechanism and boundary conditions. Design/methodology/approach Four scenario-based experiments with a between-subjects design were performed to test the proposed hypotheses. These experiments differed in both dining setting and the physical doll stimulus. Findings The results indicate that dining with (vs without) a physical doll leads solo diners to exhibit higher restaurant attachment. This effect is mediated by psychological comfort and moderated by loneliness and table distance. Specifically, dining with (vs without) a physical doll boosts restaurant attachment through psychological comfort among solo diners with higher loneliness and in the far table distance condition, but not among solo diners with lower loneliness and in the close condition. Research limitations/implications This research focuses on the impact of physical dolls on solo diners’ psychological comfort and attachment in a restaurant context. The findings have significant implications for restaurant profitability and consumer well-being. This research also has several limitations regarding the transferability of findings, sample sources and the comparison of different dining companions, requiring attention in future research. Practical implications Findings can help restaurant practitioners understand when and how to use physical dolls to enhance solo diners’ psychological comfort and attachment, thereby effectively attracting and retaining this important customer group and ultimately achieving sustainable financial performance. Originality/value This research expands the investigation into the factors influencing restaurant attachment in the solo dining context by not limiting to human–human and human–robot interactions, and deepens the comprehension of the psychological effects of physical dolls, a unique type of non-human co-located dining companion.