Aim: This study aimed to find evidence for the theory of Epley et al. (2007), by testing whether people’s likelihood of anthropomorphizing animals is related to the following three self-reported...Show moreAim: This study aimed to find evidence for the theory of Epley et al. (2007), by testing whether people’s likelihood of anthropomorphizing animals is related to the following three self-reported psychological factors: 1) the availability and richness of knowledge structures about animals (elicited agent knowledge), 2) the need to control the environment (effectance motivation), and 3) the need and desire for social contact (sociality motivation). It was hypothesised that people are more likely to anthropomorphize when self-reported elicited agent knowledge is low and self-reported effectance and sociality motivation are high. Methods: A questionnaire was used to obtain the psychological factors. Next, Participants (N = 158; 42 males, 116 females) were instructed to record themselves watching zoo animals or videos of them at home. During these recordings, they had to express their thoughts, feelings, and observations about the animal. The recordings were then used to conduct a speech analysis to measure the participants' anthropomorphic speech. Finally, it was analysed whether anthropomorphic speech correlated with the self-reported psychological factors. Results: The results showed that none of the self-reported psychological factors had an effect on their own. To investigate whether this lack of effect was caused by cross-over interactions, a post-hoc analysis was performed using the interactions of the main predictors added to the model. Results of this analysis showed one significant cross-over interaction between selfreported elicited agent knowledge and effectance motivation. Discussion: Contrary to expectations, anthropomorphic speech was not correlated with any of the self-reported psychological factors separately and therefore all three hypotheses were rejected. However, the cross-over effect found indicates that anthropomorphic speech is more complexly related to self-reported elicited agent knowledge and effectiveness motivation than the theory of Epley et al. (2007) suggests.Show less
Animals that dress up like children, but lose their clothes when they are in danger: how far does the anthropomorphism go in Beatrix Potter’s stories? Potter made her animal characters to resemble...Show moreAnimals that dress up like children, but lose their clothes when they are in danger: how far does the anthropomorphism go in Beatrix Potter’s stories? Potter made her animal characters to resemble children, but she deliberately let them keep many of their natural animal instincts, too. These wild, animalistic characteristics are also seen in the pictures, which are naturalistic and scrupulously accurate. Because of the obvious presence of nature in the stories, it is hard to pin down the line between the human and the animal. But the animals in Potter’s stories were never meant to fully substitute for humans as in the traditional fable. They have kept their natural instincts and basic habits, and behave only like humans until they have to face a danger that is natural for animals of their kind, for example predators. The moment their instinct takes over, they tend to lose their clothing, and they start walking on four legs again. The role of mothers seems to be the key to anthropomorphism. They provide the link between the animal world and the human world, as in both they are wearing clothes (presumably), and are trying to teach their children good behaviour, according to the social class they are in. The clothing that Potter’s characters are made to wear by their mothers are mainly for them to look socially acceptable, which suggests middle or upper class, as in the lower classes the clothing was of smaller importance.The anthropomorphism is projected onto the child animals by their mothers, who seem determined to raise them correctly, exactly as human mothers in their time and class would have done. Thus we come back to Cunningham, with his suggestion that in order to understand the child, we should focus on the cultural construction of ideas concerning childhood, which in this case means the social class system of the 1900s.Show less
