Jackson Wild: Nature. Media. Impact.
  • Home
  • About
    • Board of Directors
    • Our Team
    • News Room
    • Blog
    • Contact Us
  • Collective
    • Action Coalitions
  • Get Involved
    • Donate
    • Become a Partner
    • Mentorships
    • Volunteer
    • Internships
  • Summits
    • 2021 Summit >
      • 2021 Partners
    • 2020 Virtual Summit >
      • 2020 Session Recordings
      • Program & Schedule
      • Speakers
      • 2020 Partners
    • 2020 Summer Live Sessions
    • Jackson Wild: Austria >
      • About Burgenland
    • Archive >
      • 2019 Summit >
        • 2019 Session Recordings
        • Programming
        • Exhibitors >
          • Exhibitor Workshops
          • XR Demos
        • 2019 Partners
      • 2017 Festival & Summit
      • 2015 Festival & Summit
      • 2013 Festival & Summit
      • 2011 Film Competition
  • Awards
    • Media Awards >
      • 2021 Media Awards >
        • 2021 Special Jury Recognition
        • 2021 JWMA Judge Application
      • 2020 Media Awards
      • 2019 Media Awards >
        • 2019 Judges
    • Legacy Awards >
      • 2020 Legacy Awards
    • Rising Star Award
  • New Frontiers
    • 2021 Media Lab
    • 2020 Media Lab >
      • 2020 Media Lab Fellows
      • 2020 Media Lab Contributors
    • 2020 Summit Fellows
    • 2020 Wild Women Media Lab: Africa
    • 2020 Virtual Kenya
    • 2019 Media Lab >
      • 2019 Media Lab Fellows
    • 2019 Summit Fellows
  • Global
    • On Tour >
      • Films
      • Schedule
      • Host an Event
      • Tour FAQ
      • Host Resources
    • World Wildlife Day Film Showcase >
      • Forests
      • Biodiversity >
        • Biodiversity: Final Jury
      • Living Oceans >
        • Ocean Finalists & Winners
        • Living Oceans Final Jury
      • Big Cats
      • Elephants

Wild Talk

Questions for our filmmakers

Anthropomorphism: Pros and Cons

7/25/2017

0 Comments

 
By Abbey Greene
Anthropomorphism, or the attribution of human characteristics to an animal, is a big topic of discussion for those conservation media sector.

Is it a good thing? Or is it bad?

Well, one thing we know for sure is that there are professionals who present both pros and cons to anthropomorphism.
Picture
​This idea started back when Charles Darwin published his scientific work, suggesting that there was love and joy among the animals he was studying.

However, assuming that wild animals have feelings like that could hurt the way we are interact with them. “Anthropomorphism can lead to an inaccurate understanding of biological processes in the natural world,” says Patricia Ganea, a psychologist at Toronto University. “It can also lead to inappropriate behaviors towards wild animals, such as trying to adopt a wild animal as a ‘pet’ or misinterpreting the actions of a wild animal.”
Every time a video or photo of an animal goes viral with the implication that it is acting in a human way, it could be hurting our psychology and how we think about these animals. For example, a kangaroo was seen holding the head of another dying kangaroo in its hands and many grieved for the kangaroo, thinking that it was saying its last goodbye to its friend. In reality, the kangaroo may be thinking something much more simplistic and primal. 
​
Picture
Photo credit: Daily Mail
“It’s almost like the internet was built for anthropomorphizing animals,” said Holly Dunsworth, an anthropologist at the University of Rhode Island. “Humans aren’t the only animals capable of forming strong bonds, but to say that the kangaroo even knew the other kangaroo was dying is beyond anything we know. No one has shown that animals understand dying or where babies come from. We can’t say they think that abstractly.”
 
According to Dunsworth, there’s a key difference between “signals” and understanding and expanding upon ideas and abstract concepts, and that’s the difference between the way humans think versus the way animals think.

Picture
Carl Safina, photo courtesty of Stony Brook University
On the other hand, some in the scientific community believe that disregarding what we observe from these animals and drawing conclusions from our observations is unscientific. By ignoring what we’re seeing, we are not following the scientific process. Conservationist and writer Carl Safina is a strong believer in animals having emotions. In an interview with the Audubon Society he stated, “When a parrot is acting jealous of the spouse of its main keeper, we can call this jealousy, because that’s what it is,” he explains. “To say that we have no idea what the parrot is doing when it attacks the spouse of its keeper—we are just being a little bit silly. This bias against recognizing the emotions of other animals is what’s unscientific.”

​
During his TED Talk in 2015, Carl Safina talks about how some reject the idea of animal emotions. “Well I think that’s silly,” he says. “Because, attributing human thoughts and emotions to other species is the best first guess about what they’re doing and how they’re feeling. Because, their brains are basically the same as ours, they have the same structures, the same hormones that create moods and motivation in us, are in those brains as well.”

Safina also speaks about how anthropomorphism has another positive: it helps people realize how harmful animal cruelty is. “If we don’t know if they can suffer or experience mental anguish like us, then great, we’re off the hook for needing to care. This makes it easier for people to ignore the suffering we might be causing.”

In “When Elephants Weep,” author Jeffery Masson wrote about Alex, an African gray parrot with an astonishing vocabulary, who, when left at the veterinarian's office, shrieked, "Come here! I love you. I'm sorry. I want to go back." There is no mistaking emotion there, when it is spoken so clearly out loud for the observer to hear.

There likely is no right or wrong  on the subject of anthropomorphism. It’s a grey area that every storyteller tackles in their own unique way.
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Archives

    March 2021
    February 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    September 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015

    Categories

    All
    Astronomy
    Bajau
    Conservation
    Documentary
    Film Festival
    Filmmaking
    Fishing
    Grand Teton
    Indonesia
    Jackson Hole
    Jago
    National Park
    Nonprofit
    Observatory
    Ocean
    Oceanconservation
    Physics
    Planetarium
    Science
    Solar Eclipse
    Stargazing
    Tetons
    Tourism
    Wildlfie
    Wyoming

    RSS Feed

Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture

About Us

Board of Directors
Get Involved
Our Team
Privacy Policy
Join our Mailing List
​News Room
​Donate

Summits

2021 Summit
2020 Summit
2019 Summit
Become a Partner
Media Lab
Volunteer
​Archive

Awards

Media Awards
​2021 Media Awards
2020 Media Awards
2019 Media Awards
​Legacy Awards

Global

On Tour
World Wildlife Day Film Showcase

Contact Us

Jackson Wild
240 S. Glenwood, Suite 112
PO Box 3940
Jackson, WY 83001
307-200-3286

info@jacksonwild.org

SITEMAP

  • Home
  • About
    • Board of Directors
    • Our Team
    • News Room
    • Blog
    • Contact Us
  • Collective
    • Action Coalitions
  • Get Involved
    • Donate
    • Become a Partner
    • Mentorships
    • Volunteer
    • Internships
  • Summits
    • 2021 Summit >
      • 2021 Partners
    • 2020 Virtual Summit >
      • 2020 Session Recordings
      • Program & Schedule
      • Speakers
      • 2020 Partners
    • 2020 Summer Live Sessions
    • Jackson Wild: Austria >
      • About Burgenland
    • Archive >
      • 2019 Summit >
        • 2019 Session Recordings
        • Programming
        • Exhibitors >
          • Exhibitor Workshops
          • XR Demos
        • 2019 Partners
      • 2017 Festival & Summit
      • 2015 Festival & Summit
      • 2013 Festival & Summit
      • 2011 Film Competition
  • Awards
    • Media Awards >
      • 2021 Media Awards >
        • 2021 Special Jury Recognition
        • 2021 JWMA Judge Application
      • 2020 Media Awards
      • 2019 Media Awards >
        • 2019 Judges
    • Legacy Awards >
      • 2020 Legacy Awards
    • Rising Star Award
  • New Frontiers
    • 2021 Media Lab
    • 2020 Media Lab >
      • 2020 Media Lab Fellows
      • 2020 Media Lab Contributors
    • 2020 Summit Fellows
    • 2020 Wild Women Media Lab: Africa
    • 2020 Virtual Kenya
    • 2019 Media Lab >
      • 2019 Media Lab Fellows
    • 2019 Summit Fellows
  • Global
    • On Tour >
      • Films
      • Schedule
      • Host an Event
      • Tour FAQ
      • Host Resources
    • World Wildlife Day Film Showcase >
      • Forests
      • Biodiversity >
        • Biodiversity: Final Jury
      • Living Oceans >
        • Ocean Finalists & Winners
        • Living Oceans Final Jury
      • Big Cats
      • Elephants