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The authors showed that attachment anxiety predicts the anthropomorphizing of pets and gadgets. The desire for closeness, fear of abandonment, and hyper-vigilance to social cues, more so than loneliness, predicted the likelihood that people would attribute human traits to non-human agents. The authors extended the research by showing that remembering a satisfying intimate relationship can reduce reliance on anthropomorphizing.http://pss.sagepub.com/lookup/doi/10.1177/0956797616668510Bartz, J. A.; Tchalova, K.; Fenerci, C. Reminders of Social Connection Can Attenuate Anthropomorphism: A Replication and Extension of Epley, Akalis, Waytz, and Cacioppo (2008) Psychological Science: Vol. 27 Issue 12 – 2016: 1644 – 1650
The authors showed that attachment anxiety predicts the anthropomorphizing of pets and gadgets. The desire for closeness, fear of abandonment, and hyper-vigilance to social cues, more so than loneliness, predicted the likelihood that people would attribute human traits to non-human agents. The authors extended the research by showing that remembering a satisfying intimate relationship can reduce reliance on anthropomorphizing.
Bartz, J. A.; Tchalova, K.; Fenerci, C. Reminders of Social Connection Can Attenuate Anthropomorphism: A Replication and Extension of Epley, Akalis, Waytz, and Cacioppo (2008) Psychological Science: Vol. 27 Issue 12 – 2016: 1644 – 1650