You May Think Animals Are More Human-Like Because of Your Social Life

There are a lot of factors that push people toward conservation, from an interest in preserving species for their contributions to human health to an inclination to protect them for their control of pollutants, pests, or overpopulated prey. But one of the most powerful forces that causes people to support conservation is anthropomorphism — the tendency to see animals as similar to humans.

According to a new study in iScience, several social factors are tied to our tendency to anthropomorphize other species, including our social integration, our education, and our experience with animals, to name a few. These factors, the study authors say, have potentially important impacts on our willingness to support animal conservation, at least on the basis of an animal’s similarity to ourselves.

“Anthropomorphism significantly influences conservation efforts,” said Federica Amici, a study author and researcher at Leipzig University in Germany, according to a press release. “Species that appear more human-like or exhibit human-like behaviors usually tend to receive more attention, funding, and public support.”

Read More: Do We Care More About Conservation for Species That Are Aesthetic?

Social Isolation and Anthropomorphism

Though anthropomorphism is common and closely associated with conservation, there are differences in all of our tendencies to see animals as similar to humans.

To determine whether social factors shape these differences, the study authors surveyed over 740 participants from five countries around the world, including Brazil, Indonesia, Mexico, Malaysia, and Spain, asking them about their social traits and their perceptions of the similarities between animals and humans.

The study authors found that people who were more socially isolated were more likely to see animals as physically similar to humans and to assign animals human cognition and consciousness. They also found that people who were more allocentric, or more reliant on others, were more likely to anthropomorphize other species.

“People who feel lonely or aren’t well connected to others often try to meet their need for social connection by seeing human-like qualities in animals,” Amici said in the release. “For example, there is literature showing that individuals who are chronically lonely are more likely to treat their pets as if they have human thoughts and feelings.”

Read More: We Don’t Give Uglier Animals The Love They Need — Leading to Conservation Concerns

The Impact of Education and Experience

Intriguingly, the survey also revealed that people with less education were more likely to assign human traits to animals, as were people with more experience with animals — with the latter result challenging some of the traditional theories of anthropomorphism.

According to those theories, the tendency to anthropomorphize is tied to a lack of education or experience with animals. While those without the relevant education or experience make assumptions about other species, supposing that they are similar to humans in the absence of actual knowledge, those with the relevant education or experience appreciate other species’ true traits and are therefore less likely to incorrectly associate them with human characteristics.

While the study authors’ results certainly confirm one part of those theories of anthropomorphism, they complicate the other, adding support to an alternative explanation that “urban” experiences with animals are associated with a higher tendency to see similarities between animals and humans rather than a lower one.

Indeed, it is possible that the study participants with more experience with animals were more likely to assign them human traits because they had interacted with them in urban settings — through pet ownership, recreational activities, and media consumption — rather than in rural ones, and thus had experiences that promoted a perception of similarity rather than an increased appreciation of actual animal traits in the wild.

Ultimately, the authors stress that anthropomorphism can impact conservation both positively and negatively, as it can sometimes cause incorrect assumptions about animals’ characteristics. They add that it can also lead to a preference towards more easily anthropomorphized animals, or to creatures that are seen as more “aesthetic” or “charismatic.”

“I think anthropomorphizing species can be an effective approach, but it should be used with caution,” Amici added in the release. “Whatever approach conservationists take, I believe it is essential to remain aware of the many cognitive and emotional biases that shape human perceptions of nature and other animals.”

Article Sources

Our writers at Discovermagazine.com use peer-reviewed studies and high-quality sources for our articles, and our editors review for scientific accuracy and editorial standards. Review the sources used below for this article:

• iScience. Experience with Animals, Religion, and Social Integration Predict Anthropomorphism Across Five Countries

• Biological Conservation. How Anthropomorphism Is Changing the Social Context of Modern Wildlife Conservation

Sam Walters is a journalist covering archaeology, paleontology, ecology, and evolution for Discover, along with an assortment of other topics. Before joining the Discover team as an assistant editor in 2022, Sam studied journalism at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois.

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