I’ve been reading a lot about anthropomorphism lately so I
thought I’d share with you some of the things I’ve learned. Any time you can throw around a word with six
syllables you’re bound to impress everyone within earshot. Talking about anthropomorphism is sure to
make you a hit at all the backyard barbecues this spring! You’ll want to practice saying it a few times
first. It’s actually pretty easy to
pronounce if you just remember to put the stress or emphasis in “anth” and
“morph”.
So what the heck does this tongue twister of a word actually
mean? Anthropomorphism is the act of
projecting human characteristics on a non-human entity. This non-human entity can be either an animal
or an inanimate object.
An example of anthropomorphizing an inanimate object is the
person who says, “I can’t get my email because my computer hates me”. This person has projected the human quality of
having emotions onto their computer. The
person probably doesn’t really believe that her computer “hates” her, but often
we anthropomorphize things that we don’t understand in order to express our
frustration in term s we do understand.
This seems especially common when we are frustrated with computers or
other technology that we don’t fully grasp.
Another example of anthropomorphism is the person who says,
“My dog was mad at me for two days after I brought him home from the
groomer.” It might seem like the dog was
mad, but behaviorists tell us dogs don’t get angry in this way. The closest thing to anger we would see in a
dog is the rage that a dog can show in conjunction with defensive or aggressive
behavior. We can safely say that Fido
isn’t actually holding a grudge against his owner because she had him
groomed. What is more likely is that
Fido is adjusting to his new smell, shorter hair and maybe the stress he
experienced from being groomed. It will
be easier for Fido to adjust to his new haircut if his owner ignores the
“grumpiness” and just continues with normal routine. Reacting to Fido’s “anger” will only make his
adjustment more difficult.
Another customer told me that their dog always runs outside
after a groom and rolls in the first stinky cow-pie she can find. The owner of this dog told me that the dog
does this to “get even with him for making the dog take a bath”. Most of you have already guessed what is
really going on here. This dog lives on
a ranch. After a bath she probably feels
a little weird because of the new smell she has. It’s perfectly natural for her to reacquire
her accustomed scent by having a nice roll in some fragrant cow-poo. We could say that she is just putting on her
special cologne, but that would be another anthropomorphism, wouldn’t it? A better approach might be to avoid scented
soaps and colognes, possibly making the dog’s adjustment to the bath a bit less
dramatic.
A classic example that is not quite so obvious is the guy
who had a German Shepherd that had a reputation for getting in the
garbage. This guy (we’ll call him Joe)
thought his dog knew when he was being bad because as soon as he saw Joe, he
would run out of the room with his tail between his legs. Joe thought the dog was feeling guilty
because he knew better than to get in the trash while Joe was gone.
An experienced trainer told Joe to try an experiment. He told Joe to spread garbage on the kitchen
floor while the dog was outside so the dog wouldn’t see what Joe was
doing. When Joe brought the dog back
inside, the dog had the same reaction, he ran from the room with his tail
between his legs.
This shows that the dog wasn’t actually feeling guilty. He just reacted by running away because he
knew that garbage on the floor was BAD NEWS!
The sad part of this story is that Joe had been yelling at
this dog for two years about getting in the garbage. He had assumed the dog knew why he was
yelling. His assumption was based on
anthropomorphism. He believed that the
dog’s response was all about feeling guilty.
The experiment shows that the dog just knew that garbage on the floor
made Joe really angry.
The dog didn’t think about this while he was frolicking in
the trash looking for tasty morsels.
Joe’s anthopomorphization of the dog prevented him from seeing what was
actually going on. The dog really didn’t
know that he wasn’t supposed to get in the trash. He just knew that Joe got really mad when
there was trash on the floor. Joe could
have solved this by being proactive and teaching the dog to stay out of the
trash rather than yelling at the dog after the fact.
Anthropomorphism isn’t always a bad thing. By projecting human emotions and other
characteristics on our pets, we remind ourselves how important they are to us. On the other hand anthropomorphism can limit
our view of animals. By
anthropomorphizing a dog we may fail to see his animal characteristics, needs
and responses.
Ethologists and others who study animal behavior used to
think anthropomorphism was all bad. That
stance seems to have shifted a little bit in recent years. While it’s still important for science to
view animals without projecting too many human characteristics, those who study
animal behavior have actually discovered that animals have many qualities that
were once reserved for humans alone.
We’ve come a long way since the 17th century French
philosopher, Rene’Descartes, told us that animals were basically machines with
no thoughts or emotions. I have to
assume that Descartes never owned a dog, otherwise I think his dog would have
been really angry with him for that theory.
Then again, perhaps I’m just anthropomorphizing?
