Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jul 10, 2026

Creating Objects and Object Categories for Studying Perception and Perceptual Learning
Published on: November 2, 2012
Conceptualizing a nonnatural entity: anthropomorphism in God concepts
1Department of Psychology, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York 14853, USA. jlb14@cornell.edu
Abstract:
We investigate the problem of how nonnatural entities are represented by examining university students' concepts of God, both professed theological beliefs and concepts used in comprehension of narratives. In three story processing tasks, subjects often used an anthropomorphic God concept that is inconsistent with stated theological beliefs; and drastically distorted the narratives without any awareness of doing so. By heightening subjects' awareness of their theological beliefs, we were able to manipulate the degree of anthropomorphization. This tendency to anthropomorphize may be generalizable to other agents. God (and possibly other agents) is unintentionally anthropomorphized in some contexts, perhaps as a means of representing poorly understood nonnatural entities.
More Related Videos
07:34Perceptual and Category Processing of the Uncanny Valley Hypothesis' Dimension of Human Likeness: Some Methodological Issues
Published on: June 3, 2013
08:01Virtual Hand with Ambiguous Movement between the Self and Other Origin: Sense of Ownership and 'Other-Produced' Agency
Published on: October 28, 2020
Related Concept Videos
Stereotype Content Model
Concepts and Prototypes
The brain organizes this information using concepts, which are mental categories grouping linguistic data,...
Natural and Artificial Concepts
The Nativist Approach
Understanding Self-Concept
Magical Thinking