STUDY: ANTHROMORPHIZING GOD OR PETS MAKES PEOPLE FEEL LESS LONELY

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SCIENTIFIC BLOGGING - You don't need other people to feel less lonely.
You just need things you think are people. Social scientists call this
tendency "anthropomorphism." As a research topic, the phenomenon carries
important therapeutic and societal implications, says Nicholas Epley,
Assistant Professor of Behavioral Science at the University of Chicago's
Graduate School of Business. . .

"Biological reproduction is not a very efficient way to alleviate one's
loneliness, but you can make up people when you're motivated to do so,"
said Epley. "When people lack a sense of connection with other people,
they are more likely to see their pets, gadgets or gods as human-like.".
. .

In one experiment, the team found a correlation between how lonely
people felt and their tendency to describe a gadget in terms of
humanlike mental states.

In another experiment, the team made people feel lonely in the
laboratory by asking them to write about a time when they felt lonely or
isolated. Under those circumstances, they were more likely to believe in
the supernatural, whether it be God, angels or miracles, than when they
were not feeling lonely. . .

The research further revealed that not just any negative emotional state
produces this effect. "It's something special about loneliness," Epley
said. Fear, for example, doesn't increase reported belief in God, or how
people describe their pets.

Anthropomorphizing pets or God may actually confer many of the same
psychological and physical benefits that come from connections with
other people. The same benefits may not apply to gadgets, which were a
component of Epley's studies. . .

http://www.scientificblogging.com/news_releases/anthropomorphism_
people_can_cure_loneliness_by_turning_things_into_people


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