Anthropomorphism

Learners' anthropomorphic thinking

A topic in Learners' conceptions and thinking

This page considers learners' use of anthropomorphism. Anthropomorphism is also found in public science discource such as in popular science writing and science journalism:

Read about anthropomorphism in public science

Read examples of anthropomorphism in public science

"natural science, in contrast with prescientific views such as animism and anthropomorphism, does not account for the behaviour of an object in terms of typically human attributes, as it should if nature somehow depended on the [specific observing] subject."

Mario Bunge

Does this [a typical textbook diagram] represent a stable atom?

If it was on its own, I mean even if it wanted to form a more stable compound, it would have no means of doing it, so yes.

So is it fair to say that atom wants to form compounds?

Yes,wants to, yes.

How much does it want to?

If you had another force in contact with it, and that force could have a significant effect on it, then I think this atom would want to lose an electron and become an ion, but on its own, no, I think it's just happy on its own.

You've said that this particular atom, although it's stable in certain situations, wants to form compounds. So could I change that and say this atom likes to form compounds, would that be true?

Yes.

That this atom desires to form compounds?

Yes.

This atom enjoys forming compounds?

[laughs] Yes.

This atom gets its kicks forming compounds.

[short pause] Yes.

This atom after due reflection and consideration, decides it would be a good idea to form compounds.

Mm.

You think those are fair statements? How does it know it wants to form compounds, has it been told, has it worked it out for itself?

At the moment, because it's on its own, I don't think it knows that it wants to form a compound. I think this is sodium, and if there was a chlorine atom quite near it, I think the sodium atom would realise that it could form a more stable configuration by giving one of the electrons to the chlorine and forming a bond, and so it would be at a lower energy level.

Interviewing a college student (Jagdish, c.16 years) taking Advanced Level chemistry. Quoted from Taber & Watts, 1996

"Anthropomorphism is the imbuing of non-human objects with human feelings and desires" (Taber & Watts, 1996: 558). Anthropomorphic thinking treats non-human entities as if they are human. This can apply to both

  • non-human living things and
  • non-living objects.

Non-humans may be said to have human emotions or cognition or to behave as if people.

(Talking of non-living things as thought they are alive, but without suggesting human attributes is known as animism.)

So, for example, a plant may be said to 'want' to be in the sunlight, or the moon may be said to be following someone.

Anthropomorphic thought is common in young children, but is also found in adolescents and adults.

There may be cases where it could be debatable whether anthropomorphism is inappropriate. For example, it may seem reasonable to consider a chimpanzee to be angry or a dog to be happy. However, it would seem less justifiable to claim an earthworm was jealous, or a plant was thirsty, or a bacterium was happy.

Does a polar bear deliberate on how to keep warm? Read: "The brain thinks: grow more fur"

The essayist and ecology theorist Dorion Sagan has written,

"…the bee returning [to the hive/colony] with pollen and the message of its whereabouts may even enjoy the sort of intersubjective bliss reserved in human beings primarily for matinee idols and rock stars."

Sagan, 2010, p.3

Sagan is careful here to couch his phrasing with caveats – it may be the case; and the bee may experience something that is "sort of" like the bliss felt by a star meeting her adoring audience. In reality, we have no idea what a bee feels emotionally (if anything) or whether it can meaningfully be considered akin to human experiences.

A particular issue in science classes is the extent to which atoms and other quanticles are talked about as having needs, wants, desires – and being happy or jealous and so forth:

  • two positive charges always 'repel each other' 'because they're the different charges and they don't like each other';
  • a sodium atom 'is lending chlorine' 'one of its electrons';
  • 'fluorine's being greedy trying to grab two electrons';
  • 'when you heat it or boil it, the atoms of argon are free to move around if they want'
  • they [carbon and nitrogen atoms] want to fill up, like electrons on each one [orbital], to become like, stable' whereas neon has already got 'what it needs'
  • 'the first shell, it needs two electrons to become stable… it joins with another hydrogen, and it shares, the other hydrogen's electron, so it thinks that it's got two electrons'
  • delocalized electrons 'can help, you know, to do things like conduct electricity, and, things like that'
  • 'what an atom is trying to do is become stable … in the case of metals it's easier for them to become stable by losing electrons'
  • the atom 'wants to get a lower energy level'
  • electrons [shown shaded differently] 'belong to different atoms'.

(Examples from the Understanding Bonding project, reported in Taber & Watts, 1996: 559-60.)

Read about the conception that electrons belong to their atoms (even after leaving!)

Anthropomorphic language

people, not stars; can obey rules and violate them, invent and perfect them

Mario Bunge

Anthropomorphic language may be used figuratively ('weak anthropomorphism'). Even a professional scientist might say 'the bacterium was happy' as a kind of shorthand expression without meaning to suggest it shared the human emotion and experiences of happiness.

"When Robert Boyle referred to two slabs of marble falling apart in a vacuum 'wanting that pressure of air, that had formerly held them together' he presumably did not literally intend to suggest that minerals had preferences…Wolpert…refers to cells in the developing embryo which 'make the decision to become a humerus' ; and in [a] popular science book-with the anthropomorphic title of Taming the Atom–won Baeyer refers to the 'intimate act of molecular mating' …

We might guess that …these phrases are intended metaphorically and that scientists, writers and teachers take liberties with the language of science knowing that they are 'breaking the rules'.

Taber & Watts, 1996: 558

Anthropomorphic language is also common in science communication – where scientists, policy-makers and journalist communicate science to the public.

Read about examples of anthropomorphism in public discourse about science

Learners can use such language figuratively as well, and in principle this can act as a way into thinking about the submicrosocpic world of molecules and ions,

"If [the learner] is well aware that atoms do not 'want' 'realise' 'feel' or experience happiness, but simply uses such terms to communicate her ideas about the sodium atom in analogy with a social being, then this is a healthy stage between ignorance of the atomic world and being able to express her ideas in the more physical (and alas perhaps less poetic) language of energy and forces…"

Taber & Watts, 1996, p.564

That is, such language can have a bridging function – acting as a 'stepping stone' towards scientific thinking and language.

However, when learners say an atom wants a full outer shell of electrons ('The full outer shells explanatory principle'), for example, they often mean this literally – or get in the habit of using the phrase so do not notice its implications.

Read about 'The full outer shells explanatory principle'

This leads to students considering anthropomorphic explanations as adequate in science ('strong anthropomorphism').

"This 'strong' version of anthropomorphism is teleological, in that it allows phenomena to be explained in terms of the (non-existent) desires of atomic species to achieve the end-state."

Taber & Watts, 1996: 564

(Read about 'Teleology')

Anthropomorphic habits of mind?

In the extract quoted above, I teased Jagdish with her atom that "wants to" but "was happy" to see how far she would accept anthropomorphic language (the atom desires, enjoys, reflects, decided, etc.) and she clearly started to realise I was testing her – but she still seemed unable to avoid this kind of talk (the atom would 'realises'). In another extract she tells me atoms do not have feelings – but only when pushed on the issue:

Does the atom really want to form a compound? Has it desires in that direction?

Yes [it wants to].

Do you think it gets lonely if it can't form a compound?

[laughs] No, I don't think it gets lonely.

Do you think it gets jealous of other atoms that can form compounds?

It depends on how reactive that particular atom is compared with the other atom that has formed a compound.

Let's say there were three sodium atoms, just three, and a chlorine molecule came along, and some sodium chloride was formed, and two of the sodium ions were involved, with the two chlorine atoms from the molecule, and they form sodium chloride, and this is the one left over. Do you think it gets jealous?

It probably does [get jealous] but it can't do anything about it, because it's as reactive as the sodium that's formed the compound. If it was more reactive then I think if it got close enough it could displace the sodium. I mean if it was a more reactive element it could replace, displace the sodium and form a compound with the chlorine. Because it's [only] as reactive as the [other] sodium, it can't do anything about it.

Do you think it feels envy?

If you can say that about an atom,yes.

Do you think it would hate the other atom?

No, I don't think it's got feelings like that. No.

What kind of feelings does it have then?

No, nothing. None.

Interviewing a college student (Jagdish, c.16 years) taking Advanced Level chemistry. Quoted from Taber & Watts, 1996, pp.562-563

It seems that even students who 'know' that it is completely ridiculous to think that atoms could have feelings or thoughts, become trapped into using this kind of language and explaining chemistry in this way. Jagdish laughs at the idea that an atom might be lonely, but then is immediately open to thinking it could be jealous!

Anthropomorphic explanations

Explanation is a key feature of science. Learners' explanations often fail to meet the expectations of a scientific explanation. Anthropomorphic explanations are one category of flawed explanations commonly offered by students.

Some examples of learners’ anthropomorphic language and explanations discussed in the blog:

Read: "An element needs a certain number of electrons"

Read: "A sodium atom wants to donate its electron to another atom"

Read: "Gases in bottles try to escape; liquids try to take the shape"

Read: "Gas particles like to have a lot of space, so they can expand"

Read: "In ionic bonding, they both want to get full outer shells"

Sources cited:
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