Posted on 01/19/2008 4:01:17 PM PST by blam
Does Your Pet Seem Almost Human? It May Be A Clever Response To Loneliness
High five! If people feel lonely, they are more likely to describe a pet as having humanlike mental states. (Credit: iStockphoto/Annette Wiechmann)
ScienceDaily (Jan. 20, 2008) — New research at the University of Chicago finds evidence for a clever way that people manage to alleviate the pain of loneliness: They create people in their surroundings to keep them company.
"Biological reproduction is not a very efficient way to alleviate one's loneliness, but you can make up people when you're motivated to do so," said Nicholas Epley, Assistant Professor of Behavioral Science at the University of Chicago's Graduate School of Business. "When people lack a sense of connection with other people, they are more likely to see their pets, gadgets or gods as human-like."
Social scientists call this tendency "anthropomorphism." As a research topic, the phenomenon carries important therapeutic and societal implications, Epley said.
The behaviors they describe in the paper* are not limited to the lonely. Nevertheless, they are well-known to casual observers, from the stereotype of the woman who lives alone surrounded by her menagerie of cats, to the movie portrayal of a tropical island castaway.
"In the movie Castaway, Tom Hanks was isolated on an island and found the social desolation to be one of the most daunting challenges with which he had to deal," said Cacioppo, the Tiffany and Margaret Blake Distinguished Service Professor in Psychology at the University of Chicago.
"He did so, in part, by anthropomorphizing a volleyball, Wilson, who became his friend and confidant while he was on the island." Although fictional, "Castaway depicts a deep truth about the irrepressibly social nature of Homo sapiens," Cacioppo said.
The researchers designed three experiments to test their expectations that lonely people are more likely to make up for their lack of social connection by creating humanlike connections with gadgets or pets, or to increase their belief in the supernatural.
In one experiment, the team found a correlation between how lonely people felt and their tendency to describe a gadget in terms of humanlike mental states.
In another experiment, the team made people feel lonely in the laboratory by asking them to write about a time when they felt lonely or isolated. Under those circumstances, they were more likely to believe in the supernatural, whether it be God, angels or miracles, than when they were not feeling lonely.
"If we made them feel lonely, they were also more likely to describe a pet, even if it wasn't their own pet, as having humanlike mental states that were related to social connection, like being more thoughtful, considerate and compassionate," Epley said.
The research further revealed that not just any negative emotional state produces this effect. "It's something special about loneliness," Epley said. Fear, for example, doesn't increase reported belief in God, or how people describe their pets.
Loneliness is both painful to experience and potentially deadly. "It's actually a greater risk for morbidity or mortality than cigarette smoking is. Being lonely is a bad thing for you," he said.
But anthropomorphizing pets or God may actually confer many of the same psychological and physical benefits that come from connections with other people. The same benefits may not apply to gadgets, which were a component of Epley's studies.
"Non-human connections can be very powerful," Epley said. "A brain's not so sensitive to whether it's a person or not. If it's something that has a lot of traits associated with what it means to be a human, then all the better for us, it seems."
The study also provides insight into the flip side of anthropomorphism: dehumanization. People who enjoy a strong sense of social connection are less likely to perceive humanlike mental states in people who seem different from them. Classic examples occur during times of war, during which a strong sense of nationalism or group identity tend to emerge.
"It may be that strong in-group identity is one of the things that facilitates dehumanizing the opposing side," Epley said.
*Researchers will publish their findings on anthropomorphism in the February issue of the journal Psychological Science. Also contributing to the research were Scott Akalis of Harvard University and the University of Chicago's Adam Waytz and John Cacioppo.
Adapted from materials provided by University of Chicago.
I'm betting that part of the reason we see human-type traits in animals is that, since higher mammalian brains are all similar in terms of emotion-processing components and pathways, the animals do have a lot of traits we recognize in ourselves. Also, for tens of thousands of years we have been selecting companion animals of a type we like, and breeding them. We are going to choose animals who have reactions we understand and like. OF COURSE they're going to be more human-like. Sheesh. We're not going to keep and breed companions that hate us or interact with us in incomprehensible ways.
They may not be human, maybe it is better that way.
I don’t suppose anyone has ever heard of Charles Eisenmann and his shepherds.
You should read about his and his dogs.
Oh what a precious, precious baby.
I love your guys.
Sweet, sweet babies.
My pet is human if Huckabee is. She brings in a mouse or rat every few days and asks for a popcorn popper to fry it in.
Now explain cats.
Ummmm,,,,,, how ‘bout ‘the more a person loves and connects with their pet, the more human-like they would describe them.’
It’s not a friggin’ illness or delusion.
Agreed. I have several furry friends running around the house. They are not people, but they all are family. They all have individual personalities, nobody does things exactly the same way others do, some are afraid of different things, have different trust levels than others, different food likes and dislikes, different temperaments enjoy pets in different places, etc.
They are not people, but they are family. I always think about that story in the bible where Samuel is talking about the poor man who had a little lamb that he loved like a daughter, who would sit in his lap and eat from his plate. That’s kind of how I feel about my pets.
The two rules we have about family in our house: 1, no one gets left behind; and 2, we don’t eat family. :)
My husband laughs at me all the time because I talk to my dogs like they were people, but I know they aren’t and I don’t expect an answer..
No but on some level they can understand you. My guys know what certain sentences mean.
And in the case of some parrots they have actually done tests and asked them thinking questions and have gotten real answers back. It was quite amazing, they comprehended what was being asked of them and they responded with correct answers.
I can confirm this article. I live with two old cats and ... oops, Goose just told me he wants to go out. Cold out there, but he’ll be back quickly. Crookedtail will watch for him at the door and let me know when Goose wants back in. I went to bed last night and forgot to let Crook back in. He showed up at the upstairs window over the front porch around 3:30AM. Wouldn’t come in that way, so he required me to go downstairs while he climbed back down the tree he uses as his escalator. Goose met him at the door ... darn Goose cat could have reminded me before I went to sleep! ... Is that confirmation enough, blam? Gotta go, Crook wants out, pronto!
Your friends are adorable...
The article was written by a boob..
He gets up on his hind legs and has figured out that if he slips his paws behind the handles, then just lets himself fall backwards, the doors will open.
Smarter than me sometimes. sigh.
My Mother had a cat (Bear) that would unlatch the screen door on the porch to let himself out ... never would lock it when he came back in though.
No one can explain cats. They are one of the world's greatest mysteries, and they like to keep it that way.
I taught my dog to close the door after himself when he comes in during cold weather. He stands up on his hind legs to press against it and can slam it pretty hard.
Several months ago we got another dog, a rescue beagle bitch. He hates her. I think he's jealous. He has never tried to bite her, but his disgust for her is obvious. Now when they come in from outside he deliberately slams the door in her face as she tries to follow him in. He fights me to keep the door shut, standing on his hind legs and leaning against the door as I try to open it for her. If I let the pressure up he'll slam it again, sometimes right on her. And he's enjoying every minute of this.
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