You may know someone who has given a name to their car, talks about their laptop as if it has a personality, or refuses to throw away an old stuffed toy because it has “been with them forever.” At first glance, it can seem like nothing more than a quirky habit. But psychologists have found that putting a human name on an ordinary object may be connected to a much broader feature of the human mind: our tendency to see human qualities in things that are not human.
That tendency is known as anthropomorphism. And research suggests that people who name their possessions may be somewhat more inclined toward it.
