Social Cognition Unbound: Insights Into Anthropomorphism and Dehumanization.

On seeing human: a three-factor theory of anthropomorphism.

Anthropomorphism describes the tendency to imbue the real or imagined behavior of nonhuman agents with humanlike characteristics, motivations, intentions, or emotions. Although surprisingly common, anthropomorphism is not invariant. This article describes a theory to explain when people are likely to anthropomorphize and when they are not, focused on three psychological determinants--the access...

Journal of Experimental Psychology: General Mistaking Minds and Machines: How Speech Affects Dehumanization and Anthropomorphism

Dehumanization: an integrative review.

The concept of dehumanization lacks a systematic theoretical basis, and research that addresses it has yet to be integrated. Manifestations and theories of dehumanization are reviewed, and a new model is developed. Two forms of dehumanization are proposed, involving the denial to others of 2 distinct senses of humanness: characteristics that are uniquely human and those that constitute human na...

ATTITUDES AND SOCIAL COGNITION They See Us as Less Than Human: Metadehumanization Predicts Intergroup Conflict via Reciprocal Dehumanization

Although the act of dehumanizing an outgroup is a pervasive and potent intergroup process that drives discrimination and conflict, no formal research has examined the consequences of being dehumanized by an outgroup—that is, “metadehumanization.” Across 10 studies (N 3,440) involving several real-world conflicts spanning 3 continents, we provide the first empirical evidence that metadehumanizat...

Anthropomorphism in Human–Robot Co-evolution

Social robotics entertains a particular relationship with anthropomorphism, which it neither sees as a cognitive error, nor as a sign of immaturity. Rather it considers that this common human tendency, which is hypothesized to have evolved because it favored cooperation among early humans, can be used today to facilitate social interactions between humans and a new type of cooperative and inter...