virus thinks England and Scotland are the same country

Categories: Pseudo-explanations

An example of anthropomorphism in public science discourse:

"The virus thinks, whatever the SNP may think, the virus thinks this is all one country, and that's the reality."

Boris Johnson

Boris Johnson (Former UK Prime Minister) was giving evidence to the UK Covid-19 Public Inquiry

Read about anthropomorphism

Read examples of anthropomorphism in science

Many examples of anthropomorphism are listed in 'Creative comparisons: Making science familiar through language. An illustrative catalogue of figurative comparisons and analogies for science concepts'. Free Download.

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Author: Keith

Former school and college science teacher, teacher educator, research supervisor, and research methods lecturer. Emeritus Professor of Science Education at the University of Cambridge.