The Psychology of Anthropomorphism

Today's Guest Post is authored by Mowaffak Allaham.  Mowaffak is a graduate student at GMU and a research assistant at the GMU Social Robotics Lab. Follow him on twitter at @mowaffakallaham.

Author: Mowaffak Allaham

Psychologists have identified the ability to perceive the minds of others as necessary for meaningful social interactions. Ongoing research is trying to determine factors that underpin mind perception, as this ability not only allows us to perceive the mind of a fellow human, but also to perceive it in nonhuman objects or agents. This tendency to imbue the real, or imagined, behavior of nonhuman agents with humanlike characteristics, motivations, intentions, or emotions [1] is called anthropomorphism.

A critical prerequisite to understanding the minds of other humans is to attribute the presence of mental states to their minds in the first place – intentions, desires, and beliefs. During the process of anthropomorphism, the attribution of mental states can even be applied to non-human objects or agents (e.g: 3D avatars or robots).  In a classic experiment exploring this phenomenon, Fritz Heider and Marianne Simmel [2] presented participants with a video of two animated triangles either chasing or hiding from one another.

This study demonstrated our innate tendency to attribute personality traits, and therefore a mind, even for simple, geometric shapes! Since then, anthropomorphism has intrigued many psychologists, and more recently neuroscientists, as a window into the cognitive mechanisms that drive our perceptions of the mental states in others.

Interestingly, one study found that an absence of social connections increased the tendency to anthropomorphize, presumably to satisfy our motivation for social connection.  In contrast, people with a strong sense of social connection were less likely to anthropomorphize non-human agents.

Research on anthropomorphism has expanded beyond the confines of psychology, reaching newly emerging fields like human-robot interaction. Computer scientists and roboticists are actively exploring the factors that influence our perception of robots.

Along these lines, scientists at the Robotics Institute at Carnegie Mellon University have proposed six design suggestions for a humanoid robotic head [1] to support the perception of humanness in robots. Further, these researchers have isolated some facial features in particular, such as eyes, nose, and eyebrows, as major contributors to a robot’s humanness. However, even robots that do not include all of these features, like Kismet at MIT [3], are sufficient for our minds to anthropomorphize and treat them in a very human-like way.

There is no doubt that robots are becoming more present in our lives, but what are the psychological implications of this new technology? Earlier this year Boston Dynamics revealed a video demonstrating their new robot “Spot”. This autonomous robot has four hydraulic legs and a sensor head to help it move across rough terrain. Although Spot’s appearance was quite robotic, many people condemned the act of kicking it during the recorded video demonstration. Some took it further to initiate a campaign to stop robot abuse. Interestingly, such reactions can inform us how people perceived Spot to have a mind similar to that of humans, therefore a feeling of pain, despite its obvious animalistic embodiment.

But what role does one’s belief, or knowledge, of a specific agent play in anthropomorphizing it? Noel Sharkey, a professor of artificial intelligence and robotics at the University of Sheffield, UK, has told CNN that for him, as a roboticist, kicking Spot was “quite an impressive test” since usually kicking a robot will knock it over. Was his prior knowledge of artificial intelligence sufficient to allow Sharkey to perceive Spot as a mindless agent?  His attitude was in contrast with those who perceived Spot, a robot without a head, as a mindful robot that feels pain despite lacking even the basic characteristics of an animal.  Nuances like these are essential to our understanding of how we anthropomorphize others and require greater understanding if we are to improve human-robot interactions. Knowing more about the cognitive, or neurological, process of anthropomorphism could assist computer scientists and roboticists to reverse engineer and implement the underlying principles in future caregiver robots, for example, improving interactions with patients. In other words, cracking the mechanism that underlies anthropomorphism could bring us closer to having robots that read, and help, the minds of others.

References:

[1] DiSalvo, Carl F., et al. "All robots are not created equal: the design and perception of humanoid robot heads." Proceedings of the 4th conference on Designing interactive systems: processes, practices, methods, and techniques. ACM, 2002.

[2] Animating Anthropomorphism: Giving Minds To Geometric Shapes Scientific American.

[3] Breazeal, Cynthia. "Toward sociable robots." Robotics and autonomous systems 42.3 (2003): 167-175.

Further Readings:

Epley, Nicholas, et al. "When we need a human: Motivational determinants of anthropomorphism." Social Cognition 26.2 (2008): 143-155.

Epley, Nicholas, Adam Waytz, and John T. Cacioppo. "On seeing human: a three-factor theory of anthropomorphism." Psychological review 114.4 (2007): 864.

This Is For You

I'm going strong this week: pushing out the work like a man possessed.  Why? Cuz, I've got the skillz to pay the proverbial bills when it comes to conquering procrastination.  For starters, I'm focused on productivity, not procrastination, because that's what approach goals are all about.  Also, I'm treating work like a game to get into the zone, and reminding myself of the bigger picture to stay motivated.  Finally, I'm taking breaks and scheduling not-working because life would stink otherwise.  But all this has been about me, me, me.  If i'm really going to conquer procrastination, I need to make it about more than just me.

Do it for them.

That's right.  There's nothing more motivating than having someone to work hard for. It can be a child or a spouse, a mom or a brother.  It doesn't even have to be a family member: anyone you respect can be someone to work hard for.  Your boss.  Your mentor.  Your colleagues.

Today, increase your motivation by surrounding yourself with objects and images that remind you of the people who depend on you.  When you see their smiling faces, or the objects that remind you of them, you'll get back to work real quick.  Fo' sho.

Feedback Friend

You know what stinks?  Getting feedback.  You know what stinks more?  Working hard to get feedback.  While we know that feedback is good for our development and performance, it still stings to hear about how we could do better.  So, why make it worse by having to struggle to get valuable criticism?  Instead, let's use the buddy-system!

Tell Me About Myself

I just realized that seeking feedback is a very selfish thing.  As I've discussed before, the act of talking can be thought of as an act of charity: you are giving away your hard-earned experience for use by others.  In contrast, the act of listening is an exercise in selfishness: you are more likely to gain new information and expertise.  After simple listening, asking questions is even more selfish!  By asking questions, you can steer a conversation in a direction that is interesting or useful to you.  Today, we're going to take selfishness to a whole new level.

Fave Five

Choose your five favorites.

Congrats mental magicians, you've nearly completed another Week of Metacognition at The Happy Homunculus - only one challenge remains.  As a reminder, this week has been about self-control, and we've been playing a bunch of Mind Games to exercise those self-control muscles.  So far, we've calmed ourselves down, made a meal plan, went to the gym, did some work, and did some non-work.  Today, we're going to make contact.

We've talked about it before, but the strength of our social support network has a major influence on both the quality and the length of our lives.  One disease that is very strongly correlated with social support is heart disease: both the probability of having a heart attack and the probability of surviving a hear attack are correlated with strong social ties.  This is probably due to the power of positive social interactions in mitigating stress and triggering relaxation.  We've discussed both of these topics before, but you should also check out The Heart Mind Connection and The Relaxation Response if you want more specific evidence linking social interactions, stress and heart disease.

Unfortunately, in modern societies where families are often separated by great distances, it is easy to neglect our important relationships.  Today, we're going to push ourselves out of our normal, day-to-day routine of limited social interaction and reach out to those people that give us the most joy.

Fave Five

Task: Contact your five favorite people.

Info: Different types of contact earn you different amount of points.  Send an email to a favorite person: +1 point.  Talk to a favorite person on the phone: +5 points.  See a favorite person face-to-face: 10 points.  Skype a favorite person: I dunno, +6.3 points?

Goal: Earn more than 30 metacognition points by contacting your fave five.

Check out the top of the page: I've added some new, spiffy options for sharing The Happy Homunculus.  Maybe you should send this post to one of your favorite people?  Just a suggestion...

Play Date

Time to have some fun!

How's your homunculus doing?  My homunculus is being a whiny, little brat after all of the self-control I've been sportin' this week.  He doesn't want to be controlled any more, and has taken to groaning louder and louder in a really annoying way.  But, today, our self-control challenge is one that even the most spoiled homunculi will enjoy: forced fun!

If you're like most people, you work too hard.  Most of us want to be responsible; and really pushing ourselves at work and home can be an amazing source of fulfillment.  But, as we discussed last week, making time for fun is important for both our mental and physical health.  Thus, today we're gon' have some fun!

Play Date

Task: Schedule a time with someone else and do something fun.

Info: What you consider fun is up to you, but you have to schedule the time and it has to be something you do with someone else.  Why another person?  Because scheduling something with someone else makes it a lot harder to change plans.  This way, we're more likely to actually do something fun.  Final rule: the something fun must last at least one hour.

Goal: Spend 1 hour or more having fun with someone else.

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Socializing

The Week of Self-Awareness is almost complete, cognitive ninjas.  Just one more Daily Mind Game to go!  For those of you who may have missed the week this far, we've been engaged in some active self-observation in order to become more conscious of our behavior.  We've completed five challenges so far, and in doing so have felt feelings, ate mindfully, tracked our movements, audited our own work, and (hopefully) had some fun.  For the final challenge of the week, let's think socially, shall we?

Guess which one is my homunculus? All of them!

Are you social? For today's challenge, I'd like you to try to answer that question.  However, as in the previous challenges for this Week of Self-Awareness, don't just think of the answer: observe your own behavior today to get a sense of your level of social interaction.

Why do we care about this?  Social support is a strong predictor of better health outcomes for every disease studied (that I know of).  The stress-reduction and immune system boost that results from a loving and caring social circle is undeniable.  Just google "Social Support and Health" if you don't believe me.

I've played today's Daily Mind Game before, and I am constantly reminded each time that I should probably spend more time interacting with people I care about.  However, if I were to just mindlessly go on with my day, always focusing on the next to-do item, I would probably forget to maintain the relationships I value.  By mindfully focusing on my connections with others, I am reminded to reach out to my closest family and friends.  And that just feels good.

Socializing

Task: Gauge your level of social interaction.

Info: Using today as a typical day, evaluate the total time you spend interacting with others.  What are these interactions like?  Positive or negative?  How much of your day involves interacting with people you really care about?  Look for ways to increase positive interactions with loved ones and to minimize or alleviate interactions that are chronically negative.  Again, the week is about Self-Awareness - you "win" the Daily Mind Game simply by observing your own behavior in an unbiased way.

Goal: Brainstorm three simple ways to increase the ratio of positive interactions to neutral/negative interactions during a typical day.

Good job, friend!  I know being self-aware can be challenging.  But, awareness is empowering and by consciously working our our awareness, we're developing critical metacognitive monitoring abilities that will help us during future challenges.