Anthropomorphism: Difference between revisions

{{Short description|Attribution of human traits, emotions, or intentions to non-human entities}}

[[File:The North Wind and the Sun - Wind - Project Gutenberg etext 19994.jpg|thumb|In this illustration by [[Milo Winter]] of [[Aesop]]'s fable, "[[The North Wind and the Sun]]", a [[personification|personified]] North Wind tries to strip the cloak off of a traveler.]]

'''Anthropomorphism''' is the attribution of [[human]] traits, emotions, or intentions to non-human entities.<ref name="oed"/> It is considered to be an innate tendency of human psychology.<ref name=":0">{{cite book |title=The 7 Laws of Magical Thinking: How Irrational Beliefs Keep Us Happy, Healthy, and Sane |last=Hutson |first=Matthew |publisher=Hudson Street Press |year=2012 |isbn=978-1-101-55832-4 |location=New York |pages=165–81}}</ref> [[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.<ref name=Moss>{{cite news |last=Moss |first=Stephen |title=What you see in this picture says more about you than the kangaroo |url=https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/jan/14/picture-kangaroo-empathy-sexual-exploitation-human-anthropomorphise |work=[[The Guardian]] |date=15 January 2016 |access-date=17 January 2016 |archive-date=18 September 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190918013810/https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/jan/14/picture-kangaroo-empathy-sexual-exploitation-human-anthropomorphise |url-status=live }}</ref>

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 (international relations)|power]], and sometimes human weaknesses such as [[greed]], [[hatred]], [[jealousy]], and [[Angeranger|uncontrollable anger]]. Greek deities such as [[Zeus]] and [[Apollo (god)|Apollo]] often were depicted in human form exhibiting both commendable and despicable human traits. Anthropomorphism in this case is, more specifically, [[anthropotheism]].<ref>{{cite web |title=anthropotheism |url=http://www.thefreedictionary.com/Anthropotheism |year=2008 |work=Ologies & -Isms |publisher=The Gale Group, Inc. |access-date=23 August 2009 |archive-date=6 June 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110606115040/http://www.thefreedictionary.com/Anthropotheism |url-status=live }}</ref>

Anthropomorphism has cropped up as a [[Anthropomorphism (heresy)|Christian heresy]], particularly prominently with the [[Audianism|Audians]] in third -century Syria, but also in fourth -century Egypt and tenth -century Italy.<ref>{{Cite CE1913 |wstitle=Anthropomorphism |first=James Joseph |last=Fox |volume=1}}</ref> This often was based on a literal interpretation of the [[BookGenesis ofcreation Genesis|Genesismyth]] 1:27: "So God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them".<ref name="1728Cyclopedia">{{1728|title=Anthropomorphite|url=http://digicoll.library.wisc.edu/cgi-bin/HistSciTech/HistSciTech-idx?type=turn&entity=HistSciTech.Cyclopaedia01.p0147&id=HistSciTech.Cyclopaedia01&isize=L|no-prescript=1}}</ref>

{{blockquote|But if cattle and horses and lions had hands<br />or could paint with their hands and create works such as men do,<br />horses like horses and cattle like cattle<br />also would depict the gods' shapes and make their bodies<br />of such a sort as the form they themselves have.<br />...<br />[[People of Ethiopia|Ethiopians]] say that their gods are snub–nosed [{{lang|grc|σιμούς}}] and black<br />[[Thracians]] that they are pale and red-haired.<ref>Diels-Kranz, ''Die Fragmente der Vorsokratiker'', Xenophanes frr. 15–16.</ref>{{efn|Many other translations of this passage have Xenophanes state that the Thracians were "blond".}}}} Xenophanes said that "the greatest god" resembles man "neither in form nor in mind".<ref name="Xenophanes god quote">[[Clement of Alexandria]], ''Miscellanies'' V xiv 109.1–3</ref>

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In many of these stories the animals can be seen as representing facets of human personality and character.<ref name = "gamble">{{cite book|last1=Gamble|first1=Nikki|last2= Yates|first2= Sally|title=Exploring Children's Literature|year=2008|publisher=Sage Publications Ltd|isbn=978-1-4129-3013-0}}</ref> 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".<ref name = "gamble" /> 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 [[Wilbert Awdry|Rev. W. Awdry]]'s children's'[[The storiesRailway ofSeries|Railway Series]]'' stories featuring [[Thomas the Tank Engine]]'' and other anthropomorphic [[locomotive]]s.

[[Richard Adams]] developed a distinctive take on anthropomorphic writing in the 1970s: his debut novel, ''[[Watership Down]]'' (1972), featured rabbits that could talk{{mdash}}with their own distinctive language ([[Lapine language|Lapine]]) and mythology{{mdash}}and included a [[police state|police-state]] warren, [[Efrafa]]. 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 (novel)]]'' (1977) and ''[[Traveller (novel)|Traveller]]'' (1988).<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |last=Pallardy |first=Richard |encyclopedia=[[Encyclopædia Britannica Online]] |title=Richard Adams |url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Richard-Adams |access-date=24 June 2016 |date=14 January 2016 |publisher=[[Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.]] |location=[[Chicago, IL]] |archive-date=22 April 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160422113918/https://www.britannica.com/biography/Richard-Adams |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2013/dec/19/comfort-reading-richard-adams-watership-down |title=Watership Down by Richard Adams: A tale of courage, loyalty, language |last1=Levy |first1=Keren |date=19 December 2013 |website=[[theguardian.com]] |access-date=24 June 2016 |archive-date=20 August 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160820225903/https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2013/dec/19/comfort-reading-richard-adams-watership-down |url-status=live }}</ref>

By the 21st century, the children's [[picture book]] market had expanded massively.{{efn|It is estimated that the UK market for children's books was worth [[GBP|£]]672m in 2004.<ref>{{citation|url=http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20051109005381/en/Childrens-Picture-Book-Market-UK-Declined-20 |title=''"The Value of the Children's Picture Book Market"'' |url-status=bot: unknowndead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160609101641/http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20051109005381/en/Childrens-Picture-Book-Market-UK-Declined-20 |archive-date=9 June 2016 |date=2005-11-09 }}</ref>}} Perhaps a majority of picture books have some kind of anthropomorphism,<ref name="top50" /><ref>{{cite news|title= Why we're all animal lovers|author= Ben Myers|newspaper= The Guardian|date= 10 June 2008|url= https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2008/jun/10/whywereallanimallovers|access-date= 11 December 2016|archive-date= 18 January 2017|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20170118072535/https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2008/jun/10/whywereallanimallovers|url-status= live}}</ref> with popular examples being ''[[The Very Hungry Caterpillar]]'' (1969) by [[Eric Carle]] and ''[[The Gruffalo]]'' (1999) by [[Julia Donaldson]].

In the [[Pixar|Disney/Pixar]] franchises [[Cars (franchise)|''Cars'']] and [[Planes (franchise)|''Planes'']], all the characters are anthropomorphic vehicles,<ref name="Laurie 2015">{{Citation | title= Becoming-Animal Is A Trap For Humans | first= Timothy | last= Laurie | journal= Deleuze and the Non-Human | year= 2015 | url= https://www.academia.edu/10912960 | access-date= 23 June 2015 | archive-date= 13 August 2021 | archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20210813203008/https://www.academia.edu/10912960 | url-status= live }} eds. Hannah Stark and Jon Roffe.</ref> while in [[Toy Story (franchise)|''Toy Story'']], they are anthropomorphic toys. Other Pixar franchises like [[Monsters, Inc. (franchise)|''Monsters, Inc.'']] features anthropomorphic monsters, and [[Finding Nemo (franchise)|''Finding Nemo'']] features anthropomorphic marinesea life creaturesanimals (like fish, sharks, and whales). Discussing anthropomorphic animals from [[DreamWorks Animation|DreamWorks]] franchise [[Madagascar (franchise)|''Madagascar'']], {{Non sequitur | text =Timothy Laurie | date = November 2021 }} suggests that "{{Clarify | text = social differences based on conflict and contradiction are naturalized and made less 'contestable' through the classificatory matrix of human and nonhuman relations | date = November 2021 | reason = This sentence incorporating quote seems totally out of context. It's probably easier just to drop, but perhaps expanding discussion from the source would work.}}".<ref name="Laurie 2015"/> Other DreamWorks franchises like [[Shrek (franchise)|''Shrek'']] features fairy tale characters, and [[Blue Sky Studios]] of [[20th Century Fox]] franchises like [[Ice Age (franchise)|''Ice Age'']] features anthropomorphic extinct animals. Other characters in ''[[SpongeBob SquarePants (franchise)|SpongeBob SquarePants]]'' features anthropomorphic sea animals as well (like sea sponges, starfish, octopus, crabs, whales, puffer fish, lobsters, and zooplankton).

The live-action/computer-animated franchise ''[[Alvin and the Chipmunks in film|Alvin and the Chipmunks]]'' by 20th Century Fox centers around anthropomorphic talkative and singing [[chipmunk]]s. The female singing chipmunks called [[The Chipettes]] are also centered in some of the franchise's films.

The French-Belgian animated series ''Mush-Mush & the Mushables'' takes place in a world inhabited by Mushables, which are anthropomrphicanthropomorphic fungi, along with other critters such as [[beetle]]s, [[snail]]s, and [[frog]]s.

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,<ref>{{cite web |last1=Woods |first1=John |title=Do Dogs Really Smile? The Science Explained |url=https://www.allthingsdogs.com/do-dogs-smile/ |website=AllThingsDogs |date=28 September 2018 |access-date=18 March 2021 |archive-date=11 April 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210411021021/https://www.allthingsdogs.com/do-dogs-smile/ |url-status=live }}</ref> or a cat mourns for a dead owner.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Filion |first1=Daniel |title=Anthropomorphism: when we love our pets too much |url=https://educhateur.com/en/anthropomorphism/ |website=Educator |date=22 January 2020 |access-date=18 March 2021 |archive-date=4 March 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210304162341/https://educhateur.com/en/anthropomorphism/ |url-status=live }}</ref> 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.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Butterfield |first1=M. E. |last2=Hill |first2=S. E. |last3=Lord |first3=C. G. |year=2012 |title=Mangy mutt or furry friend? Anthropomorphism promotes animal welfare |journal=Journal of Experimental Social Psychology |volume=48 |issue=4 |pages=957–960 |doi=10.1016/j.jesp.2012.02.010 }}</ref> Previous studies have shown that individuals who attribute human characteristics to animals are less willing to eat them,<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Bastian |first1=B. |last2=Loughnan |first2=S. |last3=Haslam |first3=N. |last4=Radke |first4=H. R. |s2cid=22757046 |year=2012 |title=Don't mind meat? The denial of mind to animals used for human consumption |journal=Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin |volume=38 |issue=2 |pages=247–256 |doi=10.1177/0146167211424291 |pmid=21980158 }}</ref> and that the degree to which individuals perceive minds in other animals predicts the moral concern afforded to them.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Gray |first1=H. M. |last2=Gray |first2=K. |last3=Wegner |first3=D. M. |s2cid=31773170 |year=2007 |title=Dimensions of Mind Perception |journal=[[Science (journal)|Science]] |volume=315 |issue=5812 |page=619 |doi=10.1126/science.1134475 |pmid=17272713 |bibcode=2007Sci...315..619G }}</ref> 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.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Burger |first1=J. M. |last2=Messian |first2=N. |last3=Patel |first3=S. |last4=del Prado |first4=A. |last5=Anderson |first5=C. |s2cid=2109021 |year=2004 |title=What a coincidence! The effects of incidental similarity on compliance |journal=Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin |volume=30 |issue=1 |pages=35–43 |doi=10.1177/0146167203258838 |pmid=15030641 }}</ref> A study of how animal behaviors were discussed on the television series ''Life'' found that the script very often used anthropomorphisms.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Sealey, |first1=Alison, and|last2=Oakley |first2=Lee Oakley.|date=24 "May 2013 |title=Anthropomorphic grammar? Some linguistic patterns in the wildlife documentary series Life |url=https://www."degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/text-2013-0017/html ''|journal=Text & Talk'' |language=en |volume=33, no. |issue=3 (|pages=399–420 |doi=10.1515/text-2013):-0017 399|issn=1860-420.7349}}</ref>

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.<ref name="metaphor-model" /><ref>Moon, Youngme, and Clifford Nass. "How 'real' are computer personalities? Psychological responses to personality types in human-computer interaction." Communication research 23.6 (1996): 651–674.</ref> This may allow incorporation of anthropomorphic features into computers/robots to enable more familiar "social" interactions, making them easier to use.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Duffy|first1=Brian R.|title=Anthropomorphism and the social robot|journal=Robotics and Autonomous Systems|date=March 2003|volume=42|issue=3–4|pages=177–190|doi=10.1016/S0921-8890(02)00374-3|citeseerx=10.1.1.59.9969|s2cid=1959145 }}</ref>

Modern psychologists generally characterize anthropomorphism as a [[cognitive bias]]. That is, anthropomorphism is a cognitive process by which people use their [[Social cognition#Social schemas|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.<ref name=":0" /> 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.<ref name=":1">{{Cite journal|title = On seeing human: A three-factor theory of anthropomorphism|journal = Psychological Review|pages = 864–886|volume = 114|issue = 4|doi = 10.1037/0033-295x.114.4.864|pmid = 17907867|first1 = Nicholas|last1 = Epley|first2 = Adam|last2 = Waytz|first3 = John T.|last3 = Cacioppo|year = 2007|citeseerx = 10.1.1.457.4031| s2cid=6733517 }}</ref> Anthropomorphism can also function as a strategy to cope with [[loneliness]] when other human connections are not available.<ref>{{Cite journal|title = Social Connection and Seeing Human – Oxford Handbooks|journal = The Oxford Handbook of Social Exclusion|url = http://oxfordhandbooks.com/view/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780195398700.001.0001/oxfordhb-9780195398700-e-23|doi = 10.1093/oxfordhb/9780195398700.013.0023|first = Adam|last = Waytz|year = 2013|isbn = 978-0-19-539870-0|access-date = 16 November 2015|archive-date = 17 November 2015|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20151117031124/http://www.oxfordhandbooks.com/view/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780195398700.001.0001/oxfordhb-9780195398700-e-23|url-status = live}}</ref>

* ''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.

Children appear to anthropomorphize and use [[Egocentrism|egocentric reasoning]] from an early age and use it more frequently than adults.<ref>{{Cite book|title = The Child's Conception of the World: A 20th-Century Classic of Child Psychology|last = Piaget|first = Jean|publisher = Routledge|year = 1929|isbn = 978-0-415-16887-8|location = New York, NY}}</ref> 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.<ref name=":1" /> In contrast, [[Autism|autistic children]] may tend to describe anthropomorphized objects in purely mechanical terms (that is, in terms of what they do) because they have difficulties with [[theory of mind]] (ToM) according to past research.<ref>{{Cite journal|title = Autism, Asperger syndrome and brain mechanisms for the attribution of mental states to animated shapes|journal = Brain|date = 1 August 2002|issn = 0006-8950|pmid = 12135974|pages = 1839–1849|volume = 125|issue = 8|doi = 10.1093/brain/awf189|first1 = Fulvia|last1 = Castelli|first2 = Chris|last2 = Frith|first3 = Francesca|last3 = Happé|first4 = Uta|last4 = Frith|doi-access = free}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |lastlast1=Baron-Cohen |firstfirst1=Simon |last2=Leslie |first2=Alan M. |last3=Frith |first3=Uta |date=1985-10-01 |title=Does the autistic child have a "theory of mind" ? |url=https://wwwdx.sciencedirectdoi.comorg/science10.1016/article/pii/00100277859002280010-0277%2885%2990022-8 |journal=Cognition |language=en |volume=21 |issue=1 |pages=37–46 |doi=10.1016/0010-0277(85)90022-8 |pmid=2934210 |s2cid=14955234 |issn=0010-0277 |access-date=22 March 2023 |archive-date=8 January 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190108040022/https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0010027785900228 |url-status=live }}</ref> A 2018 study has shown that autistic people are more prone to object personification, suggesting that autistic [[empathy]] and ToM may be not only more complex but also more all-encompassing.<ref>{{Cite journal |lastlast1=White |firstfirst1=Rebekah C |last2=Remington |first2=Anna |date=2018 |title=Object personification in autism: This paper will be very sad if you don’tdon't read it |url=http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1362361318793408 |journal=Autism |language=en |volume=23 |issue=4 |pages=1042–1045 |doi=10.1177/1362361318793408 |pmid=30101594 |s2cid=51969215 |issn=1362-3613 |access-date=22 March 2023 |archive-date=14 May 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230514100033/https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1362361318793408 |url-status=live }}</ref> The [[double empathy problem]] challenges the notion that autistic people have difficulties with ToM.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Milton |first=Damian E.M. |date=2012-10-01 |title=On the ontological status of autism: the ‘double'double empathy problem’problem' |url=https://doi.org/10.1080/09687599.2012.710008 |journal=Disability & Society |volume=27 |issue=6 |pages=883–887 |doi=10.1080/09687599.2012.710008 |s2cid=54047060 |issn=0968-7599}}</ref>

* [https://web.archive.org/web/20100415150207/http://crl.ucsd.edu/~ahorowit/Encyclopedia-anthrop.pdf "Anthropomorphism" entry] in the ''Encyclopedia of Human-Animal Relationships]'' (Horowitz A., 2007)

* [http://gogd.tjs-labs.com/gallery-view?keyword=anthropomorphism "Anthropomorphism" in mid-century American print advertising.] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211201002923/http://gogd.tjs-labs.com/gallery-view?keyword=anthropomorphism |date=1 December 2021 }} Collection at The Gallery of Graphic Design.