Anthropomorphism- Katie Lamp

In addition to this class, I was also taking Comparative Psychology in which we examine animal behavior. One of the most important things I learned from that class was not to apply human characteristics to animals- in other words, not to anthropomorphize. It it sometimes difficult to study some of the behaviors animals exhibit (one example being the waggle dance in bees) without wondering "how they do it". It can thus be easy to fall into the trap of trying to apply human cognitive processes and higher order thinking to these creatures to explain "how" they do these things. In reality, these animals can do some pretty impressive things that humans cannot do without the cognitive abilities we have as humans. I find this really amazing, and it was easy to relate the idea that humans have essentially isolated themselves from nature to the idea that humans try to separate themselves from other species as well, and this isolation is the reason i think some people anthropomorphize and instead of appreciating other species for their amazing abilities, we sometimes assume they have the skills they have because they are using some sort of human ability in a non-human form.