2017/07/21 by Mike Dacey · 116 citations
Neuroscience · Psychology · Social Sciences · #Artificial intelligence #Cognition #Cognitive bias #Cognitive psychology #Cognitive science #Computer science #Confirmation bias #Control (management) #Empirical evidence #Epistemology #Evolutionary Psychology and Human Behavior #Heuristic #Philosophy #Psychoanalysis #Psychology #Psychology of Moral and Emotional Judgment #Social and Intergroup Psychology #Social psychology #Unconscious mind
paper · pdf · doi:10.1086/694039
published in Philosophy of Science 84(5), 1152-1164 (Cambridge University Press)
openalex publication_date 2017/07/21 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
Philosophers and psychologists have long worried that the human tendency to anthropomorphize leads us to err in our understanding of nonhuman minds. This tendency, which I call intuitive anthropomorphism , is a heuristic used by our unconscious folk psychology to understand nonhuman animals. The dominant understanding of intuitive anthropomorphism underestimates its complexity. If we want to understand and control intuitive anthropomorphism, we must treat it as a cognitive bias and look to the empirical evidence. This evidence suggests that the most common control for intuitive anthropomorphism, Morgan’s Canon, should be rejected, while others are incomplete. It also suggests new approaches.