Why do humans talk to animals if they can't understand?
Talking to your pet might seem strange, but there's a very good reason why we do it.
Anthrozoologist and professor of psychology at Western Carolina University Hal Herzog told The Atlantic: "Talking to our pets is absolutely natural. Human beings are natural anthropomorphizers, meaning we naturally tend to [ascribe] all kinds of thoughts and meanings to other things in our lives."
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Although your dog or cat can’t respond verbally to you, it doesn’t mean the conversation is one sided.
"They give us a lot back!" says Herzog. "When you talk to them, they respond. Your dog might cock his head, give you a sort of quizzical look, like, Huh? I say ‘Do you wanna go outside?’ and my cat will come up to me and she'll meow. I don't think she's processing words the same way we process words, but we have this communication system based on language."
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That said, people don’t talk to their pets expecting a response, they do it because of the human qualities they see.
Although anthropomorphizing animals - giving them human attributes - was often associated with childishness, a study released earlier this year says otherwise.
Dr Nicholas Epley, a professor of behavioral science at the University of Chicago and an anthropomorphism expert, told Quartz: "Historically, anthropomorphizing has been treated as a sign of childishness or stupidity, but it’s actually a natural byproduct of the tendency that makes humans uniquely smart on this planet."
"No other species has this tendency."
