This article is about the attribution of human traits, emotions, or intentions to non-human entities. For the representation of a thing or abstraction as a person, seePersonification.
Anthropomorphism is the attribution ofhuman traits, emotions, or intentions to non-human entities.[1] It is considered to be an innate tendency of human psychology.[2]Personification is the related attribution of human form and characteristics to abstract concepts such as nations, emotions, and natural forces, such as seasons and weather. Both have ancient roots as storytelling and artistic devices, and most cultures have traditional fables with anthropomorphized animals as characters. People have also routinely attributed human emotions and behavioral traits to wild as well as domesticated animals.[3]
Etymology
Anthropomorphism andanthropomorphization derive from the verb formanthropomorphize,[a] itself derived from theGreekánthrōpos (ἄνθρωπος,lit. "human") andmorphē (μορφή, "form"). It is first attested in 1753, originally in reference to the heresy of applying a human form to theChristianGod.[b][1]
Examples in prehistory
The 35,000 to 40,000 year-oldLöwenmensch figurineAnthropomorphic "pebble" figures from the 7th millennium BC
From the beginnings of humanbehavioral modernity in theUpper Paleolithic, about 40,000 years ago, examples ofzoomorphic (animal-shaped) works of art occur that may represent the earliest known evidence of anthropomorphism. One of the oldest known is anivory sculpture, theLöwenmensch figurine, Germany, a human-shapedfigurine with the head of a lioness or lion, determined to be about 32,000 years old.[5][6]
It is not possible to say what these prehistoric artworks represent. A more recent example isThe Sorcerer, an enigmatic cave painting from theTrois-Frères Cave, Ariège, France: the figure's significance is unknown, but it is usually interpreted as some kind of great spirit or master of the animals. In either case there is an element of anthropomorphism.
This anthropomorphic art has been linked by archaeologistSteven Mithen with the emergence of more systematic hunting practices in the Upper Palaeolithic.[7] He proposes that these are the product of a change in thearchitecture of the human mind,an increasingfluidity between the natural history and socialintelligences[clarification needed], where anthropomorphism allowed hunters to identifyempathetically with hunted animals and better predict their movements.[c]
In religion and mythology, anthropomorphism is the perception of a divine being or beings in human form, or the recognition of human qualities in these beings.
Ancient mythologies frequently represented the divine as deities with human forms and qualities. They resemble human beings not only in appearance and personality; they exhibited many human behaviors that were used to explain natural phenomena, creation, and historical events. The deities fell in love, married, had children, fought battles, wielded weapons, and rode horses and chariots. They feasted on special foods, and sometimes required sacrifices of food, beverage, and sacred objects to be made by human beings. Some anthropomorphic deities represented specific human concepts, such as love, war, fertility, beauty, or the seasons. Anthropomorphic deities exhibited human qualities such asbeauty,wisdom, andpower, and sometimes human weaknesses such asgreed,hatred,jealousy, anduncontrollable anger. Greek deities such asZeus andApollo often were depicted in human form exhibiting both commendable and despicable human traits. Anthropomorphism in this case is, more specifically,anthropotheism.[9]
From the perspective of adherents to religions in which humans were created in the form of the divine, the phenomenon may be consideredtheomorphism, or the giving of divine qualities to humans.
Anthropomorphism has cropped up as aChristian heresy, particularly prominently withAudianism in third-century Syria, but also fourth-century Egypt and tenth-century Italy.[10] This often was based on a literal interpretation of theGenesis creation myth: "So God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them".[11]
Hindus do not reject the concept of a deity in the abstract unmanifested, but note practical problems. TheBhagavad Gita, Chapter 12, Verse 5, states that it is much more difficult for people to focus on a deity that isunmanifested than one withform, remarking on the usage of anthropomorphicicons (murtis) that adherents can perceive with their senses.[12][13]
Criticism
Some religions, scholars, and philosophers objected to anthropomorphic deities. The earliest known criticism was that of the Greek philosopherXenophanes (570–480 BCE) who observed that people model their gods after themselves. He argued against the conception of deities as fundamentally anthropomorphic:
But if cattle and horses and lions had hands or could paint with their hands and create works such as men do, horses like horses and cattle like cattle also would depict the gods' shapes and make their bodies of such a sort as the form they themselves have. ... Ethiopians say that their gods are snub–nosed [σιμούς] and black Thracians that they are pale and red-haired.[14][d]
Xenophanes said that "the greatest god" resembles man "neither in form nor in mind".[15]
Both Judaism and Islam reject an anthropomorphic deity, believing that God is beyond human comprehension. Judaism's rejection of an anthropomorphic deity began with theprophets, who explicitly rejected any likeness of God to humans.[16] Their rejection grew further after theIslamic Golden Age in the tenth century, whichMaimonides codified in the twelfth century, in his thirteen principles of Jewish faith.[e]
In theIsmaili interpretation ofIslam, assigning attributes to God as well as negating any attributes from God (via negativa) both qualify as anthropomorphism and are rejected, as God cannot be understood by either assigning attributes to Him or taking them away. The 10th-century Ismaili philosopherAbu Yaqub al-Sijistani suggested the method of double negation; for example: "God is not existent" followed by "God is not non-existent". This glorifies God from any understanding or human comprehension.[18]
In secular thought, one of the most notable criticisms began in 1600 withFrancis Bacon, who argued againstAristotle'steleology, which declared that everything behaves as it does in order to achieve some end, in order to fulfill itself.[19] Bacon pointed out that achieving ends is a human activity and to attribute it to nature misconstrues it as humanlike.[19] Modern criticisms followed Bacon's ideas such as critiques ofBaruch Spinoza andDavid Hume. The latter, for instance, embedded his arguments in his wider criticism of human religions and specifically demonstrated in what he cited as their "inconsistence" where, on one hand, the Deity is painted in the most sublime colors but, on the other, is degraded to nearly human levels by giving him human infirmities, passions, and prejudices.[20] InFaces in the Clouds, anthropologist Stewart Guthrie proposes that all religions are anthropomorphisms that originate in the brain's tendency to detect the presence or vestiges of other humans in natural phenomena.[21]
Some scholars argue that anthropomorphism overestimates the similarity of humans and nonhumans and therefore could not yield accurate accounts.[22]
From thePanchatantra: Rabbit fools Elephant by showing the reflection of the moon.
Anthropomorphism, also referred to as personification, is a well-establishedliterary device from ancient times. The story of "The Hawk and the Nightingale" inHesiod'sWorks and Days precededAesop'sfables by centuries. Collections of linkedfables from India, theJataka Tales andPanchatantra, also employ anthropomorphized animals to illustrate principles of life. Many of the stereotypes of animals that are recognized today, such as the wily fox and the proud lion, can be found in these collections.Aesop's anthropomorphisms were so familiar by the first century CE that they colored the thinking of at least one philosopher:
And there is another charm about him, namely, that he puts animals in a pleasing light and makes them interesting to mankind. For after being brought up from childhood with these stories, and after being as it were nursed by them from babyhood, we acquire certain opinions of the several animals and think of some of them as royal animals, of others as silly, of others as witty, and others as innocent.
Apollonius noted that the fable was created to teach wisdom through fictions that are meant to be taken as fictions, contrasting them favorably with the poets' stories of thedeities that are sometimes taken literally. Aesop, "by announcing a story which everyone knows not to be true, told the truth by the very fact that he did not claim to be relating real events".[23] The same consciousness of the fable as fiction is to be found in other examples across the world, one example being a traditional Ashanti way of beginning tales of the anthropomorphictrickster-spiderAnansi: "We do not really mean, we do not really mean that what we are about to say is true. A story, a story; let it come, let it go."[24]
Fairy tales
Anthropomorphic motifs have been common in fairy tales from the earliest ancient examples set in a mythological context to the great collections of theBrothers Grimm andPerrault. TheTale of Two Brothers (Egypt, 13th century BCE) features several talking cows and inCupid and Psyche (Rome, 2nd century CE)Zephyrus, the west wind, carriesPsyche away. Later anant feels sorry for her and helps her in her quest.
In many of these stories the animals can be seen as representing facets of human personality and character.[27] AsJohn Rowe Townsend remarks, discussingThe Jungle Book in which the boyMowgli must rely on his new friends the bearBaloo and the black pantherBagheera, "The world of the jungle is in fact both itself and our world as well".[27] A notable work aimed at an adult audience isGeorge Orwell'sAnimal Farm, in which all the main characters are anthropomorphic animals. Non-animal examples includeRev. W. Awdry'sRailway Series stories featuringThomas the Tank Engine and other anthropomorphiclocomotives.
Thefantasy genre developed from mythological, fairy tale, andRomance motifs[28] sometimes have anthropomorphic animals as characters. Thebest-selling examples of the genre areThe Hobbit[29] (1937) andThe Lord of the Rings[g] (1954–1955), both byJ. R. R. Tolkien, books peopled with talking creatures such as ravens, spiders, and the dragonSmaug and a multitude of anthropomorphicgoblins andelves. John D. Rateliff calls this the "Doctor Dolittle Theme" in his bookThe History of the Hobbit[31] and Tolkien saw this anthropomorphism as closely linked to the emergence of human language andmyth: "...The first men to talk of 'trees and stars' saw things very differently. To them, the world was alive with mythological beings... To them the whole of creation was 'myth-woven and elf-patterned'."[32]
Richard Adams developed a distinctive take on anthropomorphic writing in the 1970s: his debut novel,Watership Down (1972), featured rabbits that could talk—with their own distinctive language (Lapine) and mythology—and included apolice-state warren,Efrafa. Despite this, Adams attempted to ensure his characters' behavior mirrored that of wild rabbits, engaging in fighting, copulating and defecating, drawing onRonald Lockley's studyThe Private Life of the Rabbit as research. Adams returned to anthropomorphic storytelling in his later novelsThe Plague Dogs (1977) andTraveller (1988).[33][34]
Anthropomorphism in literature and other media led to a sub-culture known asfurry fandom, which promotes and creates stories and artwork involving anthropomorphic animals, and the examination and interpretation of humanity through anthropomorphism. This can often be shortened in searches as "anthro", used by some as an alternative term to "furry".[37]
Anthropomorphic characters have also been a staple of thecomic book genre. The most prominent one wasNeil Gaiman's theSandman which had a huge impact on how characters that are physical embodiments are written in thefantasy genre.[38][39] Other examples also include the matureHellblazer (personified political and moral ideas),[40]Fables and its spin-off seriesJack of Fables, which was unique for having anthropomorphic representation ofliterary techniques andgenres.[41] Various Japanesemanga andanime have used anthropomorphism as the basis of their story. Examples includeSquid Girl (anthropomorphized squid),Hetalia: Axis Powers (personified countries),Upotte!! (personified guns),Arpeggio of Blue Steel andKancolle (personified ships).
In film
Big Buck Bunny is afree animated short featuring anthropomorphic characters.
In theDisney/Pixar franchisesCars andPlanes, all the characters are anthropomorphic vehicles,[42] while inToy Story, they are anthropomorphic toys. Other Pixar franchises likeMonsters, Inc features anthropomorphic monsters andFinding Nemo features anthropomorphic sea animals (like fish, sharks, and whales). Discussing anthropomorphic animals fromDreamWorks franchiseMadagascar, Timothy Laurie suggests that "social differences based on conflict and contradiction are naturalized and made less 'contestable' through the classificatory matrix of human and nonhuman relations[clarification needed]".[42] Other DreamWorks franchises likeShrek features fairy tale characters, andBlue Sky Studios of20th Century Fox franchises likeIce Age features anthropomorphic extinct animals. Other characters inSpongeBob SquarePants features anthropomorphic sea animals as well (like sea sponges, starfish, octopus, crabs, whales, puffer fish, lobsters, and zooplankton).
The live-action/animated franchiseAlvin and the Chipmunks by 20th Century Fox centers around anthropomorphic talkative and singingchipmunks. The female singing chipmunks calledThe Chipettes are also centered in some of the franchise's films.
Since the 1960s, anthropomorphism has also been represented in various animated television shows such asBiker Mice From Mars (1993–1996) andSWAT Kats: The Radical Squadron (1993–1995).Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, first aired in 1987, features four pizza-loving anthropomorphic turtles with a great knowledge of ninjutsu, led by their anthropomorphic rat sensei, Master Splinter.Nickelodeon's longest running animated TV seriesSpongeBob SquarePants (1999–present), revolves aroundSpongeBob, a yellowsea sponge, living in the underwater town of Bikini Bottom with his anthropomorphic marine life friends.Cartoon Network's animated seriesThe Amazing World of Gumball (2011–2019) are about anthropomorphic animals and inanimate objects. All of the characters inHasbro Studios' TV seriesMy Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic (2010–2019) are anthropomorphic fantasy creatures, with most of them beingponies living in the pony-inhabited land ofEquestria. TheNetflix original seriesCentaurworld focuses on awarhorse who gets transported to aDr. Seuss-like world full of centaurs who possess the bottom half of any animal, as opposed to the traditionalhorse.
In the American animated TV seriesFamily Guy, one of the show's main characters,Brian, is a dog. Brian shows many human characteristics – he walks upright, talks, smokes, and drinks Martinis – but also acts like a normal dog in other ways; for example, he cannot resist chasing a ball and barks at the mailman, believing him to be a threat. In a similar case,BoJack Horseman, an AmericanNetflix adult animated black comedy series, takes place in analternate world where humans and anthropomorphic animals live side by side, and centers around the life ofBoJack Horseman; ahumanoidhorse who was aone hit wonder on a popular 1990s sitcomHorsin' Around, living off the show'sresiduals in present time. Multiple main characters of the series are otheranimals who possesshuman body form and otherhuman-like traits and identity as well;Mr. Peanutbutter, a humanoiddog lives a mostly human life—he speaksAmerican English,walks upright, owns ahouse, drives acar, is in aromantic relationship with a human woman (in this series, as animals and humans areseen as equal, relationships like this are not seen asbestiality but seen as regularhuman sexuality),Diane, and has a successful career in television—however also exhibitsdog traits—he sleeps in a human-sizedog bed, getsarrested for having adrag race with the mailman and is once forced to wear adog cone after he gets stitches in his arm.
ThePBS Kids animated seriesLet's Go Luna! centers on an anthropomorphic female Moon who speaks, sings, and dances. She comes down out of the sky to serve as a tutor of international culture to the three main characters: a boy frog and wombat and a girl butterfly, who are supposed to be preschool children traveling a world populated by anthropomorphic animals with a circus run by their parents.
The French-Belgian animated seriesMush-Mush & the Mushables takes place in a world inhabited by Mushables, which are anthropomorphic fungi, along with other critters such asbeetles,snails, andfrogs.
InArmello, anthropomorphic animals battle for control of the animal kingdom.
Sonic the Hedgehog, avideo game franchise debuting in 1991, features aspeedy blue hedgehog as the main protagonist. This series' characters are almost all anthropomorphic animals such as foxes, cats, and other hedgehogs who are able to speak and walk on their hind legs like normal humans. As with most anthropomorphisms of animals, clothing is of little or no importance, where some characters may be fully clothed while some wear only shoes and gloves.
Another popular example in video games is theSuper Mario series, debuting in 1985 withSuper Mario Bros., of which main antagonist includes a fictional species of anthropomorphicturtle-like creatures known asKoopas. Other games in the series, as well as of other of its greaterMario franchise, spawned similar characters such asYoshi,Donkey Kong andmany others.
Claes Oldenburg's soft sculptures are commonly described as anthropomorphic.[44][45] Depicting common household objects, Oldenburg's sculptures were consideredPop Art. Reproducing these objects, often at a greater size than the original, Oldenburg created his sculptures out of soft materials. The anthropomorphic qualities of the sculptures were mainly in their sagging and malleable exterior which mirrored the not-so-idealistic forms of the human body. In "Soft Light Switches" Oldenburg creates a household light switch out of vinyl. The two identical switches, in a dulled orange, insinuate nipples. The soft vinyl references the aging process as the sculpture wrinkles and sinks with time.
Minimalism
In the essay "Art and Objecthood",Michael Fried makes the case that "literalist art" (minimalism) becomes theatrical by means of anthropomorphism. The viewer engages the minimalist work, not as an autonomous art object, but as a theatrical interaction. Fried references a conversation in whichTony Smith answers questions about his six-foot cube, "Die".
Q: Why didn't you make it larger so that it would loom over the observer?
A: I was not making a monument.
Q: Then why didn't you make it smaller so that the observer could see over the top?
A: I was not making an object.
Fried implies an anthropomorphic connection by means of "a surrogate person – that is, a kind of statue."
The minimalist decision of "hollowness" in much of their work was also considered by Fried to be "blatantly anthropomorphic". This "hollowness" contributes to the idea of a separate inside; an idea mirrored in the human form. Fried considers the Literalist art's "hollowness" to be "biomorphic" as it references a living organism.[46]
Post-minimalism
CuratorLucy Lippard's Eccentric Abstraction show, in 1966, sets upBriony Fer's writing of a post-minimalist anthropomorphism. Reacting to Fried's interpretation of minimalist art's "looming presence of objects which appear as actors might on a stage", Fer interprets the artists in Eccentric Abstraction to a new form of anthropomorphism. She puts forth the thoughts of Surrealist writerRoger Caillois, who speaks of the "spacial lure of the subject, the way in which the subject could inhabit their surroundings." Caillous uses the example of an insect who "through camouflage does so in order to become invisible... and loses its distinctness." For Fer, the anthropomorphic qualities of imitation found in the erotic, organic sculptures of artistsEva Hesse andLouise Bourgeois, are not necessarily for strictly "mimetic" purposes. Instead, like the insect, the work must come into being in the "scopic field... which we cannot view from outside."[47]
The practice is particularly widespread in Japan, where cities, regions, and companies all have mascots, collectively known asyuru-chara. Two of the most popular areKumamon (a bear who representsKumamoto Prefecture)[48] andFunassyi (apear who representsFunabashi, a suburb ofTokyo).[49]
Other examples of anthropomorphism include the attribution of human traits to animals, especially domesticated pets such as dogs and cats. Examples of this include thinking a dog is smiling simply because it is showing his teeth,[50] or a cat mourns for a dead owner.[51] Anthropomorphism may be beneficial to the welfare of animals. A 2012 study by Butterfieldet al. found that utilizing anthropomorphic language when describing dogs created a greater willingness to help them in situations of distress.[52] Previous studies have shown that individuals who attribute human characteristics to animals are less willing to eat them,[53] and that the degree to which individuals perceive minds in other animals predicts the moral concern afforded to them.[54] It is possible that anthropomorphism leads humans to like non-humans more when they have apparent human qualities, since perceived similarity has been shown to increase prosocial behavior toward other humans.[55] A study of how animal behaviors were discussed on the television seriesLife found that the script very often used anthropomorphisms.[56]
In science
In science, the use of anthropomorphic language that suggests animals have intentions and emotions has traditionally been deprecated as indicating a lack ofobjectivity.Biologists have been warned to avoid assumptions that animals share any of the same mental, social, and emotional capacities of humans, and to rely instead on strictly observable evidence.[57] In 1927Ivan Pavlov wrote that animals should be considered "without any need to resort to fantastic speculations as to the existence of any possible subjective states".[58] More recently,The Oxford companion to animal behaviour (1987) advised that "one is well advised to study the behaviour rather than attempting to get at any underlying emotion".[59] Some scientists, like William M Wheeler (writing apologetically of his use of anthropomorphism in 1911), have used anthropomorphic language in metaphor to make subjects more humanly comprehensible or memorable.[i]
Even insects play together, as has been described by that excellent observer,P. Huber, who saw ants chasing and pretending to bite each other, like so many puppies.
The study ofgreat apes in their own environment and in captivity[j] has changed attitudes to anthropomorphism. In the 1960s the three so-called "Leakey's Angels",Jane Goodall studyingchimpanzees,Dian Fossey studyinggorillas andBiruté Galdikas studyingorangutans, were all accused of "that worst of ethological sins – anthropomorphism".[64] The charge was brought about by their descriptions of the great apes in the field; it is now more widely accepted thatempathy has an important part to play in research.
De Waal has written: "To endow animals with human emotions has long been a scientifictaboo. But if we do not, we risk missing something fundamental, about both animals and us."[65] Alongside this has come increasing awareness of thelinguistic abilities of the great apes and the recognition that they are tool-makers and have individuality and culture.[66]
Writing ofcats in 1992, veterinarianBruce Fogle points to the fact that "both humans and cats have identicalneurochemicals and regions in the brain responsible for emotion" as evidence that "it is not anthropomorphic to credit cats with emotions such as jealousy".[67]
In computing
In science fiction, an artificially intelligent computer or robot, even though it has not been programmed with human emotions, often spontaneously experiences those emotions anyway: for example, Agent Smith inThe Matrix was influenced by a "disgust" toward humanity. This is an example of anthropomorphism: in reality, while an artificial intelligence could perhaps be deliberately programmed with human emotions or could develop something similar to an emotion as a means to an ultimate goalif it is useful to do so, it would not spontaneously develop human emotions for no purpose whatsoever, as portrayed in fiction.[68]
One example of anthropomorphism would be to believe that one's computer is angry at them because they insulted it; another would be to believe that an intelligent robot would naturally find a woman attractive and be driven to mate with her. Scholars sometimes disagree with each other about whether a particular prediction about an artificial intelligence's behavior is logical, or whether the prediction constitutes illogical anthropomorphism.[68] An example that might initially be considered anthropomorphism, but is in fact a logical statement about an artificial intelligence's behavior, would be theDario Floreano experiments where certain robots spontaneously evolved a crude capacity for "deception", and tricked other robots into eating "poison" and dying: here, a trait, "deception", ordinarily associated with people rather than with machines, spontaneously evolves in a type ofconvergent evolution.[69]
The conscious use of anthropomorphic metaphor is not intrinsically unwise; ascribing mental processes to the computer, under the proper circumstances, may serve the same purpose as it does when humans do it to other people: it may help persons to understand what the computer will do, how their actions will affect the computer, how to compare computers with humans, and conceivably how to design computer programs. However, inappropriate use of anthropomorphic metaphors can result in false beliefs about the behavior of computers, for example by causing people to overestimate how "flexible" computers are.[70] According to Paul R. Cohen andEdward Feigenbaum, in order to differentiate between anthropomorphization and logical prediction of AI behavior, "the trick is to know enough about how humans and computers think to sayexactly what they have in common, and, when we lack this knowledge, to use the comparison tosuggest theories of human thinking or computer thinking."[71]
Computers overturn the childhood hierarchical taxonomy of "stones (non-living) → plants (living) → animals (conscious) → humans (rational)", by introducing a non-human "actor" that appears to regularly behave rationally. Much of computing terminology derives from anthropomorphic metaphors: computers can "read", "write", or "catch a virus". Information technology presents no clear correspondence with any other entities in the world besides humans; the options are either to leverage an emotional, imprecise human metaphor, or to reject imprecise metaphor and make use of more precise, domain-specific technical terms.[70]
People often grant an unnecessary social role to computers during interactions. The underlying causes are debated;Youngme Moon andClifford Nass propose that humans are emotionally, intellectually and physiologically biased toward social activity, and so when presented with even tiny social cues, deeply infused social responses are triggered automatically.[70][72] This may allow incorporation of anthropomorphic features into computers/robots to enable more familiar "social" interactions, making them easier to use.[73]
Alleged examples of anthropomorphism toward AI have included: Google engineer Blake Lemoine's widely derided 2022 claim that the GoogleLaMDA chatbot wassentient;[74] the 2017 granting of honorary Saudi Arabian citizenship to the robotSophia; and the reactions to the chatbotELIZA in the 1960s.[75]
Psychology
Foundational research
In psychology, the firstempirical study of anthropomorphism was conducted in 1944 byFritz Heider andMarianne Simmel.[76] In the first part of this experiment, the researchers showed a 2-and-a-half-minute long animation of several shapes moving around on the screen in varying directions at various speeds. When subjects were asked to describe what they saw, they gave detailed accounts of the intentions and personalities of the shapes. For instance, the large triangle was characterized as a bully, chasing the other two shapes until they could trick the large triangle and escape. The researchers concluded that when people see objects making motions for which there is no obvious cause, they view these objects as intentional agents (individuals that deliberately make choices to achieve goals).
Modern psychologists generally characterize anthropomorphism as acognitive bias. That is, anthropomorphism is a cognitive process by which people use theirschemas about other humans as a basis for inferring the properties of non-human entities in order to make efficient judgements about the environment, even if those inferences are not always accurate.[2] Schemas about humans are used as the basis because this knowledge is acquired early in life, is more detailed than knowledge about non-human entities, and is more readily accessible in memory.[77] Anthropomorphism can also function as a strategy to cope withloneliness when other human connections are not available.[78]
Three-factor theory
Since making inferences requires cognitive effort, anthropomorphism is likely to be triggered only when certain aspects about a person and their environment are true. Psychologist Adam Waytz and his colleagues created a three-factor theory of anthropomorphism to describe these aspects and predict when people are most likely to anthropomorphize.[77] The three factors are:
Elicited agent knowledge, or the amount of prior knowledge held about an object and the extent to which that knowledge is called to mind.
Effectance, or the drive to interact with and understand one's environment.
Sociality, the need to establish social connections.
When elicited agent knowledge is low and effectance and sociality are high, people are more likely to anthropomorphize. Various dispositional, situational, developmental, and cultural variables can affect these three factors, such asneed for cognition, social disconnection, cultural ideologies,uncertainty avoidance, etc.
Developmental perspective
Children appear to anthropomorphize and useegocentric reasoning from an early age and use it more frequently than adults.[79] Examples of this are describing a storm cloud as "angry" or drawing flowers with faces. This penchant for anthropomorphism is likely because children have acquired vast amounts ofsocialization, but not as much experience with specific non-human entities, so thus they have less developed alternative schemas for their environment.[77] In contrast,autistic children may tend to describe anthropomorphized objects in purely mechanical terms (that is, in terms of what they do) because they have difficulties withtheory of mind (ToM) according to past research.[80][81] A 2018 study has shown that autistic people are more prone to object personification, suggesting that autisticempathy and ToM may be not only more complex but also more all-encompassing.[82] Thedouble empathy problem challenges the notion that autistic people have difficulties with ToM.[83]
Effect on learning
Anthropomorphism can be used to assist learning. Specifically, anthropomorphized words[84] and describing scientific concepts with intentionality[85] can improve later recall of these concepts.
Anthropomorphism of inanimate objects can affect product buying behavior. When products seem to resemble a human schema, such as the front of a car resembling a face, potential buyers evaluate that product more positively than if they do not anthropomorphize the object.[87]
People also tend to trust robots to do more complex tasks such as driving a car or childcare if the robot resembles humans in ways such as having a face, voice, and name; mimicking human motions; expressing emotion; and displaying some variability in behavior.[88][89]
^Anthropomorphism, among divines, the error of those who ascribe a human figure to the deity.[4]
^In theNew York Review of Books,Gardner opined that "I find most convincing Mithen's claim that human intelligence lies in the capacity to make connections: through using metaphors".[8]
^Many other translations of this passage have Xenophanes state that the Thracians were "blond".
^TheVictoria and Albert Museum wrote: "Beatrix Potter is still one of the world's best-selling and best-loved children's authors. Potter wrote and illustrated a total of 28 books, including the 23 Tales, the 'little books' that have been translated into more than 35 languages and sold over 100 million copies."[26]
^150 million sold, a 2007 estimate of copies of the full story sold, whether published as one volume, three, or some other configuration.[30]
^It is estimated that the UK market for children's books was worth£672m in 2004.[35]
^In 1911,Wheeler wrote: "The larval insect is, if I may be permitted to lapse for a moment into anthropomorphism, a sluggish, greedy, self-centred creature, while the adult is industrious, abstemious and highly altruistic..."[60]
^In 1946,Hebb wrote: "A thoroughgoing attempt to avoid anthropomorphic description in the study of temperament was made over a two-year period at the Yerkes laboratories. All that resulted was an almost endless series of specific acts in which no order or meaning could be found. On the other hand, by the use of frankly anthropomorphic concepts of emotion and attitude one could quickly and easily describe the peculiarities of individual animals... Whatever the anthropomorphic terminology may seem to imply about conscious states in chimpanzee, it provides an intelligible and practical guide to behavior."[63]
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