Thank you, whatever you are: Gratitude for nonhuman entities through anthropomorphism

We propose that anthropomorphism plays a central role in producing gratitude for nonhuman entities from humans. Colloquially called personification, anthropomorphism occurs when humans attribute agency to nonhumans, enabling the latter to act upon the environment and humans alike. Humans then attribute any subsequently received benefits to a perceived intentionality of nonhumans, finding them well-intentioned and appreciable. Our five studies (N = 2019) support this hypothesis. First, we establish that individuals' trait anthropomorphism correlates with their experienced gratitude in recent encounters with both natural and artificial nonhumans (Study 1). Examining causality, we report that anthropomorphizing computers (Study 2), forests (Study 3), artificial intelligence (Study 4), and oceanic currents (Study 5) in experiments evokes gratitude for these nonhuman entities by eliciting a perception of them as responsive benefactors. Receiving increased imagined (Study 5) or actual (Study 4) benefits in the studies further strengthens the effect. In turn, the thankful feeling enhances humans' trust for anthropomorphized nonhumans (artificial intelligence; Study 4) and the former's urges to protect the latter (nature; Studies 3 and 5). Overall, since the generation of gratitude for nonhumans rests on assigning human characteristics to them, the present research implies a mechanism to evoke gratitude from humans for other humans as well. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).