Have you ever wondered about the strange old lady who lives in the rickety house down the street surrounded by her troupe of cats? A recent study by researchers at the University of Chicago suggests that one way in which people relieve feelings of loneliness is to construct "people" out of their surroundings by imparting human-like characteristics to their pets, gods, or even gadgets.
They found that this tendency, which is referred to by social scientists as "anthropomorphism", most profoundly occurred as a result of loneliness, as opposed to other negative emotional states, like fear, and has strong therapeutic and societal ramifications because it is thought that non-human connections can bestow many of the same psychological and physical benefits that come from interpersonal relationships with other people.
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