Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2021 Jul;74(7):1295-1304.
doi: 10.1177/17470218211005694. Epub 2021 Mar 27.

Autistic traits and loneliness in autism are associated with increased tendencies to anthropomorphise

Nathan Caruana  1 , Rebekah C White  2 , Anna Remington  3
Affiliations

Autistic traits and loneliness in autism are associated with increased tendencies to anthropomorphise

Nathan Caruana et al. Q J Exp Psychol (Hove). 2021 Jul.

Abstract

Anthropomorphism-the attribution of human qualities to non-human objects-is believed to be a natural tendency which may serve several adaptive functions. One possibility is that anthropomorphism provides an egocentric heuristic by which we can understand the world. It may also be a strategy for reducing our subjective sense of loneliness. However, not all humans exhibit the same propensity to anthropomorphise. Recent findings suggest that autistic individuals may be more likely to anthropomorphise than non-autistic individuals. In Study 1, we conducted a large-scale survey of autistic traits and dispositional anthropomorphism in the general population (n = 870). We found that individuals who reported having more autistic traits had an increased dispositional tendency to anthropomorphise non-human entities. In Study 2, we more closely examined variation in anthropomorphism tendencies in a sample of autistic adults (n = 90) to better understand what might drive increased anthropomorphism in this population. We found that those with greater anthropomorphism tendencies experienced greater levels of self-reported loneliness. We propose that increased anthropomorphism might reflect reduced opportunities for social connection for autistic people and those with more autistic traits.

Keywords: Autism; anthropomorphism; broader autism phenotype; personification; social cognition.

PubMed Disclaimer

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

LinkOut - more resources