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= Anthropomorphism =
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Introduction
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Anthropomorphism is the attribution of human traits, emotions, or
intentions to non-human entities. It is considered to be an innate
tendency of human psychology.
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.
Etymology
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Anthropomorphism derives from its verb form 'anthropomorphize', itself
derived from the Greek 'ánthr�pos' (, "human") and 'morph�' (,
"form"). It is first attested in 1753, originally in reference to the
heresy of applying a human form to the Christian God.
Examples in prehistory
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From the beginnings of human behavioral modernity in the Upper
Paleolithic, about 40,000 years ago, examples of zoomorphic
(animal-shaped) works of art occur that may represent the earliest
evidence we have of anthropomorphism. One of the oldest known is an
ivory sculpture, the Löwenmensch figurine, Germany, a human-shaped
figurine with the head of a lioness or lion, determined to be about
32,000 years old.
It is not possible to say what these prehistoric artworks represent. A
more recent example is The Sorcerer, an enigmatic cave painting from
the Trois-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 archaeologist Steven
Mithen with the emergence of more systematic hunting practices in the
Upper Palaeolithic. He proposes that these are the product of a change
in the architecture of the human mind, an increasing fluidity between
the natural history and social intelligences, where anthropomorphism
allowed hunters to identify empathetically with hunted animals and
better predict their movements.
In religion and mythology
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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 as beauty, wisdom, and power, and sometimes human
weaknesses such as greed, hatred, jealousy, and uncontrollable anger.
Greek deities such as Zeus and Apollo often were depicted in human
form exhibiting both commendable and despicable human traits.
Anthropomorphism in this case is, more specifically, anthropotheism.
From the perspective of adherents to religions in which humans were
created in the form of the divine, the phenomenon may be considered
theomorphism, or the giving of divine qualities to humans.
Anthropomorphism has cropped up as a Christian heresy, particularly
prominently with the Audians in third century Syria, but also in
fourth century Egypt and tenth century Italy. This often was based on
a literal interpretation of Genesis 1:27: "So God created humankind in
his image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he
created them".
Criticism
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Some religions, scholars, and philosophers objected to anthropomorphic
deities. The earliest known criticism was that of the Greek
philosopher Xenophanes (570-480 BCE) who observed that people model
their gods after themselves. He argued against the conception of
deities as fundamentally anthropomorphic:
Xenophanes said that "the greatest god" resembles man "neither in
form nor in mind".
Both Judaism and Islam reject an anthropomorphic deity, believing that
God is beyond human comprehension. Judaism's rejection of an
anthropomorphic deity grew during the Hasmonean period (circa 300
BCE), when Jewish belief incorporated some Greek philosophy. Judaism's
rejection grew further after the Islamic Golden Age in the tenth
century, which Maimonides codified in the twelfth century, in his
thirteen principles of Jewish faith.
Hindus do not reject the concept of a deity in the abstract
unmanifested, but note practical problems. Lord Krishna said in the
Bhagavad Gita, Chapter 12, Verse 5, that it is much more difficult for
people to focus on a deity as the unmanifested than one with form,
using anthropomorphic icons (murtis), because people need to perceive
with their senses. In 'Faces 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.
In secular thought, one of the most notable criticisms began in 1600
with Francis Bacon, who argued against Aristotle's teleology, which
declared that everything behaves as it does in order to achieve some
end, in order to fulfill itself. Bacon pointed out that achieving ends
is a human activity and to attribute it to nature misconstrues it as
humanlike. Modern criticisms followed Bacon's ideas such as critiques
of Baruch Spinoza and David 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.
There are also scholars who argue that anthropomorphism is the
overestimation of the similarity of humans and nonhumans, therefore,
it could not yield accurate accounts.
Religious texts
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There are various examples of personification as a literary device in
both Hebrew Bible and Christian New Testament and also in the texts of
some other religions.
Fables
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Anthropomorphism, also referred to as personification, is a well
established literary device from ancient times. The story of "The Hawk
and the Nightingale" in Hesiod's 'Works and Days' preceded Aesop's
fables by centuries. Collections of linked fables from India, the
'Jataka Tales' and 'Panchatantra', 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:
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 the deities 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". 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
anthropomorphic trickster-spider Anansi: "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."
Fairy tales
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Anthropomorphic motifs have been common in fairy tales from the
earliest ancient examples set in a mythological context to the great
collections of the Brothers Grimm and Perrault. The 'Tale of Two
Brothers' (Egypt, 13th century BCE) features several talking cows and
in 'Cupid and Psyche' (Rome, 2nd century CE) Zephyrus, the west wind,
carries Psyche away. Later an ant feels sorry for her and helps her in
her quest.
Modern literature
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Building on the popularity of fables and fairy tales, specifically
'children's' literature began to emerge in the nineteenth century with
works such as 'Alice's Adventures in Wonderland' (1865) by Lewis
Carroll, 'The Adventures of Pinocchio' (1883) by Carlo Collodi and
'The Jungle Book' (1894) by Rudyard Kipling, all employing
anthropomorphic elements. This continued in the twentieth century with
many of the most popular titles having anthropomorphic characters,
and
examples being 'The Tale of Peter Rabbit' (1901) and later books by
Beatrix Potter; 'The Wind in the Willows' by Kenneth Grahame (1908);
'Winnie-the-Pooh' (1926) and 'The House at Pooh Corner' (1928) by A.
A. Milne; and 'The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe' (1950) and the
subsequent books in 'The Chronicles of Narnia' series by C. S. Lewis.
In many of these stories the animals can be seen as representing
facets of human personality and character. As John Rowe Townsend
remarks, discussing 'The Jungle Book' in which the boy Mowgli must
rely on his new friends the bear Baloo and the black panther Bagheera,
"The world of the jungle is in fact both itself and our world as
well". A notable work aimed at an adult audience is George Orwell's
'Animal Farm', in which all the main characters are anthropomorphic
animals. Non-animal examples include Rev.W Awdry's children's stories
of 'Thomas the Tank Engine' and other anthropomorphic locomotives.
The fantasy genre developed from mythological, fairy tale, and Romance
motifs and characters, sometimes with anthropomorphic animals. The
best-selling examples of the genre are 'The Hobbit' (1937) and 'The
Lord of the Rings' (1954-1955), both by J. R. R. Tolkien, books
peopled with talking creatures such as ravens, spiders, and the dragon
Smaug and a multitude of anthropomorphic goblins and elves. John D.
Rateliff calls this the "Doctor Dolittle Theme" in his book 'The
History of the Hobbit' and Tolkien saw this anthropomorphism as
closely linked to the emergence of human language and myth: "...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".'
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 a warren, Efrafa, run along the lines of a
police state. Despite this, Adams attempted to ensure his characters'
behavior mirrored that of wild rabbits, engaging in fighting,
copulating and defecating, drawing on Ronald Lockley's study 'The
Private Life of the Rabbit' as research. Adams returned to
anthropomorphic storytelling in his later novels 'The Plague Dogs'
(1977) and 'Traveller' (1988).
By the 21st century, the children's picture book market had expanded
massively. Perhaps a majority of picture books have some kind of
anthropomorphism, with popular examples being 'The Very Hungry
Caterpillar' (1969) by Eric Carle and 'The Gruffalo' (1999) by Julia
Donaldson.
Anthropomorphism in literature and other media led to a sub-culture
known as furry 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".
Anthropomorphic characters have also been a staple of the comic book
genre. The most prominent one was Neil Gaiman's the 'Sandman' which
had a huge impact on how characters that are physical embodiments are
written in the fantasy genre. Other examples also include the mature
'Hellblazer' (personified political and moral ideas), 'Fables' and its
spin-off series 'Jack of Fables', which was unique for having
anthropomorphic representation of literary techniques and genres.
Various Japanese manga and anime have used anthropomorphism as the
basis of their story. Examples include 'Squid Girl' (anthropomorphized
squid), 'Hetalia: Axis Powers' (personified countries), 'Upotte!!'
(personified guns), 'Arpeggio of Blue Steel' and 'Kancolle'
(personified ships).
Film
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Some of the most notable examples are the Walt Disney characters the
Magic Carpet from Disney's Aladdin franchise, Mickey Mouse, Donald
Duck, Goofy, and Oswald the Lucky Rabbit; the Looney Tunes characters
Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, and Porky Pig; and an array of others from the
1920s to present day.
In the Disney/Pixar films 'Cars' (2006), 'Cars 2' (2011), 'Planes'
(2013), 'Planes: Fire & Rescue' (2014) and 'Cars 3' (2017), all
the characters are anthropomorphic vehicles, while 'Toy Story' (1995),
'Toy Story 2' (1999), and 'Toy Story 3' (2010) are anthropomorphic
toys, and so is the newly released 'Toy Story 4' (2019). Other Pixar
films like 'Monsters, Inc.' (2001) and 'Monsters University' (2013)
are anthropomorphic monsters, and 'Finding Nemo' (2003) and 'Finding
Dory' (2016) are anthropomorphic marine life creatures (like fish,
sharks, and whales). Discussing anthropomorphic animals from
DreamWorks movies 'Madagascar' (2005), 'Madagascar:' 'Escape 2 Africa'
(2008), and 'Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted' (2012), 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". Blue Sky Studios of 20th
Century Fox films like 'Ice Age' (2002), 'Ice Age: The Meltdown'
(2006), 'Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs' (2009), 'Ice Age: Continental
Drift' (2012), and 'Ice Age: Collision Course' (2016) are
anthropomorphic extinct animals.
All of the characters in Walt Disney Animation Studios' 'Zootopia'
(2016) are anthropomorphic animals, that is entirely a nonhuman
civilization.
In the live-action/computer-animated films by 20th Century Fox that
centers around anthropomorphic talkative and singing chipmunks, it
includes 'Alvin and the Chipmunks' (2007), 'Alvin and the Chipmunks:
The Squeakquel' (2009), 'Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked' (2011),
and 'Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Road Chip' (2015). The female
singing chipmunks called The Chipettes are also centered in some of
these films.
Television
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Since the 1960s, anthropomorphism has also been represented in various
animated television shows such as 'Biker Mice From Mars' (1993-1996)
and 'SWAT 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 series 'SpongeBob SquarePants'
(1999-present), revolves around SpongeBob, a yellow sea sponge, living
in the underwater town of Bikini Bottom with his anthropomorphic
marine life friends. Cartoon Network's animated series 'The Amazing
World of Gumball' (2011-2019) takes place about anthropomorphic
animals and inanimate objects.
In the American animated TV series 'Family 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.
The PBS Kids animated series 'Let'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.
Video games
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'Sonic the Hedgehog', a video game franchise debuting in 1991,
features a speedy 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 the 'Super Mario' series,
debuting in 1985 with 'Super Mario Bros.', of which main antagonist
includes a fictional species of anthropomorphic turtle-like creatures
known as Koopas. Other games in the series, as well as of other of its
greater 'Mario' franchise, spawned similar characters such as Yoshi,
Donkey Kong and many others.
Claes Oldenburg
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Claes Oldenburg's soft sculptures are commonly described as
anthropomorphic. Depicting common household objects, Oldenburg's
sculptures were considered Pop 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
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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 which Tony 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.
Post Minimalism
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Curator Lucy Lippard's Eccentric Abstraction show, in 1966, sets up
Briony 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 writer Roger 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
artists Eva Hesse and Louise 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."
Mascots
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For branding, merchandising, and representation, figures known as
mascots are now often employed to personify sports teams,
corporations, and major events such as the World's Fair and the
Olympics. These personifications may be simple human or animal
figures, such as Ronald McDonald or the ass that represents the United
States's Democratic Party. Other times, they are anthropomorphic
items, such as "Clippy" or the "Michelin Man". Most often, they are
anthropomorphic animals such as the Energizer Bunny or the San Diego
Chicken.
The practice is particularly widespread in Japan, where cities,
regions, and companies all have mascots, collectively known as
'yuru-chara'. Two of the most popular are Kumamon (a bear who
represents Kumamoto Prefecture) and Funassyi (a pear who represents
Funabashi, a suburb of Tokyo).
Animals
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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 he
is showing his teeth, or a cat is bored because it is not reacting to
commands.
Anthropomorphism may be beneficial to the welfare of animals. A 2012
study by Butterfield et al. found that utilizing anthropomorphic
language when describing dogs created a greater willingness to help
them in situations of distress. Previous studies have shown that
individuals who attribute human characteristics to animals are less
willing to eat them, and that the degree to which individuals perceive
minds in other animals predicts the moral concern afforded to them. 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.
In science
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In science, the use of anthropomorphic language that suggests animals
have intentions and emotions has traditionally been deprecated as
indicating a lack of objectivity. 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. In 1927 Ivan Pavlov wrote that animals should be
considered "without any need to resort to fantastic speculations as to
the existence of any possible subjective states". 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". 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.
Despite the impact of Charles Darwin's ideas in 'The Expression of the
Emotions in Man and Animals' (Konrad Lorenz in 1965 called him a
"patron saint" of ethology) ethology has generally focused on
behavior, not on emotion in animals. Although in other ways Darwin was
and is the epitome of science, his acceptance of anecdote and
anthropomorphism stands out in sharp contrast to the lengths to which
later scientists would go to overlook apparent mindedness, selfhood,
individuality, and agency:
The study of great apes in their own environment and in captivity has
changed attitudes to anthropomorphism. In the 1960s the three
so-called "Leakey's Angels", Jane Goodall studying chimpanzees, Dian
Fossey studying gorillas and Biruté Galdikas studying orangutans, were
all accused of "that worst of ethological sins - anthropomorphism".
The charge was brought about by their descriptions of the great apes
in the field; it is now more widely accepted that empathy has an
important part to play in research.
De Waal has written: "To endow animals with human emotions has long
been a scientific taboo. But if we do not, we risk missing something
fundamental, about both animals and us." Alongside this has come
increasing awareness of the linguistic abilities of the great apes and
the recognition that they are tool-makers and have individuality
Writing of cats in 1992, veterinarian Bruce Fogle points to the fact
that "both humans and cats have identical neurochemicals and regions
in the brain responsible for emotion" as evidence that "it is not
anthropomorphic to credit cats with emotions such as jealousy".
In computing
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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 in The 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 goal 'if' it is useful to do so, it would not
spontaneously develop human emotions for no purpose whatsoever, as
portrayed in fiction.
One example of anthropomorphism would be to believe that your PC is
angry at you because you insulted it; another would be to believe that
an intelligent robot would naturally find a woman sexy 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. An example that might initially be considered
anthropomorphism, but is in fact a logical statement about an
artificial intelligence's behavior, would be the Dario 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
of convergent evolution. 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 we do it to other people: it may help us to understand
what the computer will do, how our actions will affect the computer,
how to compare computers with ourselves, 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. According to Paul R. Cohen and Edward 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 say 'exactly' what they have in common, and, when
we lack this knowledge, to use the comparison to 'suggest' theories of
human thinking or computer thinking."
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 a mushy, imprecise human metaphor,
or to reject imprecise metaphor and make use of more precise,
domain-specific technical terms.
People often grant an unnecessary social role to computers during
interactions. The underlying causes are debated; Youngme Moon and
Clifford 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. The field of "social computing" attempts to
make computers easier to use by leveraging anthropomorphism as a
"language" of human-computer interaction.
Foundational research
=======================
In psychology, the first empirical study of anthropomorphism was
conducted in 1944 by Fritz Heider and Marianne Simmel. 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.
Modern psychologists generally characterize anthropomorphism as a
cognitive bias. That is, anthropomorphism is a cognitive process by
which people use their schemas 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. 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. Anthropomorphism can also function as a strategy
to cope with loneliness when other human connections are not
available.
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.
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 as need for cognition, social
disconnection, cultural ideologies, uncertainty avoidance, etc.
Developmental perspective
===========================
Children appear to anthropomorphize and use egocentric reasoning from
an early age and use it more frequently than adults. 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 of socialization, but not as much experience
with specific non-human entities, so thus they have less developed
alternative schemas for their environment. In contrast, autistic
children tend to describe anthropomorphized objects in purely
mechanical terms because they have difficulties with theory of mind.
Effect on learning
====================
Anthropomorphism can be used to assist learning. Specifically,
anthropomorphized words and describing scientific concepts with
intentionality can improve later recall of these concepts.
In mental health
==================
In people with depression, social anxiety, or other mental illnesses,
emotional support animals are a useful component of treatment
partially because anthropomorphism of these animals can satisfy the
patients' need for social connection.
In marketing
==============
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.
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.
Image gallery
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File:Tram in Almada pic-007.jpg|Almada tram in smiley livery
File:Visage dans un rocher.jpg|Pareidolia of a face in a rock
File:June 1984 Snap Shot.jpg|Seymore D. Fair 1st-ever World Expo
Mascot
File:K_plug_typical.jpg|Danish electrical socket
See also
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* Aniconism - antithetic concept
* Animism
* Anthropic principle
* Anthropocentrism
* Anthropology
* Anthropomorphic maps
* Anthropopathism
* Funny animal
* Furry fandom
* Great Chain of Being
* Human-animal hybrid
* Humanoid
* Moe anthropomorphism
* National personification
* Pareidolia - seeing faces in everyday objects
* Pathetic fallacy
* Prosopopoeia
* Speciesism
* Talking animals in fiction
* Zoomorphism
External links
======================================================================
*
[
https://web.archive.org/web/20100415150207/http://crl.ucsd.edu/~ahorowit/Encycl
opedia-anthrop.pdf
"Anthropomorphism" entry in the Encyclopedia of Human-Animal
Relationships] (Horowitz A., 2007)
* [
http://www.daviddarling.info/encyclopedia/A/anthropomorphism.html
"Anthropomorphism" entry in the Encyclopedia of Astrobiology,
Astronomy, and Spaceflight]
* [
http://gogd.tjs-labs.com/gallery-view?keyword=anthropomorphism
"Anthropomorphism" in mid-century American print advertising.]
Collection at The Gallery of Graphic Design.
License
=========
All content on Gopherpedia comes from Wikipedia, and is licensed under CC-BY-SA
License URL:
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
Original Article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthropomorphism
