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People Who Talk To Pets, Cars And Plants Are Actually Totally Normal, According To Science

March 25, 2019 By Mike Thurstone

You can often hear me saying things to objects around me; sometimes screaming at them and other times talking gently to them.

You may think I am a crazy person. Often, I say ‘thank you’ to my car, talk to my cat, and even sometimes I other languages, not just English.
I can assure you that I am a reasonable person. Moreover, many people do this thing.

Those Who Speak To Animals And Inanimate Objects May Be Highly Intelligent

The verb ‘to anthropomorphise’ is defined as ‘to attribute human characteristics or behaviour to – inanimate objects and pets’. Furthermore, it has been proven that people who anthropomorphise have a higher degree of social intelligence than people who do not.

As people, when we meet new people, make new friendships, we are more satisfied, healthier and cheerful. Scientists tried to explain the term anthropomorphism as a phenomenon.

They also pointed out that children anthropomorphise more often than grown-ups.

However, in the sixth century BC, anthropomorphism was regarded as a flaw, as something that unintelligent people do.

Even more, they said that this phenomenon could only be overcome by hard learning and thinking. Maybe rarely, but even these days we ridicule someone who talks to inanimate objects; because we are aware that these objects cannot speak to you.

Developing A Better Understanding

As stated by Nicholas Epley, a professor of behavioural science at the University of Chicago, ‘human beings have evolved a uniquely sophisticated system of social cognition that is used to explain and predict other people’s behaviour’ ; thus this is the reason why we assign human features to inanimate objects.

When people are trying to make a connection with their pets, often the pets perceive human characteristics in them.

Besides, we give our pets, plants and cars name and personality types. For instance, my car is an older lady who will soon retire and rest.

Of course, I am entirely aware that this isn’t real, but I have a good feeling when I am doing that. For example, when I am alone in my car and driving in hazardous circumstances by talking to my car, I feel more protected.

Ingrid Piller is a linguistics professor at Macquarie University who gives an explanation. ‘You name the vessel because it becomes your most important companion. You want to believe it has vested interest in keeping you safe—even though it truly has no interests at all.’

On numerous occasions, people working in the advertisement give human traits to inanimate objects in order to influence our thinking. When you buy a car, you know that it is made of steel and nothing more, but when human traits are attributed to it, it is harder for you to replace it with a new model.

Epley says ‘crushing lifeless steel is one thing [whereas] crushing an old reliable friend is quite another.’ This action of threatening someone in order to benefit from their work has a positive aspect – this subject will be researched more and we will acknowledge many things about us.

Conclusion

It hasn’t been scientifically proven that people who talk to pets, plants, and cars are more intelligent; however, being socially intelligent is very important; thus I consider myself as a person who is pleased and content when talking to his inanimate objects and pets.

 

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References:

  1. http://faculty.chicagobooth.edu/nicholas.epley/EpleyMindLikeMine.pdf 
  2. http://faculty.chicagobooth.edu/nicholas.epley/
  3. https://researchers.mq.edu.au/en/persons/ingrid-piller 

Filed Under: Tips, News

About Mike Thurstone

Mike is passionate about writing stories that stimulate our audience in a way that not many can do. He loves sport, his dog Bax, and enjoys playing violin in his free time.

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