Why do we give names to inanimate things?

This is my pet dog, named "Tutu". Well, it's no big deal, it has life, jumping around at home, anyone would give such a little guy a nice name.

My pet dog "TuTu" | Photo provided by the author

This is the sofa in my house. It is filled with dolls sitting in a row. They are not alive, but I still gave them names one by one.

Colorful kids | Photo provided by the author

I have kept the habit of naming inanimate objects for many years. When I was a child, I watched a TV series in which the heroine loved to name her things - the hair dryer was "Huhu", the mobile phone was "Meihui", the motorcycle was "Shuhui"... Since then, I have liked to name all kinds of things of mine.

However, when my parents hear it, they will occasionally say, “How old are you…”. Every time this happens, I want to tell them loudly that this is not something only children would do!

This behavior is not childish, many adults also do it

There is a special term in the field of behavioral science called "anthropomorphization." Giving names to inanimate objects is one manifestation of anthropomorphism.

Nicholas Epley, a professor of behavioral science at the University of Chicago, has done a lot of research on this. He found that naming things is not a behavior exclusive to children, that is, it is not "childish". On the contrary, it is something that many adults also do.

For example, there was a hot topic on Weibo called "Name the things you like", and many adult netizens responded with a variety of wonderful names.

Some people named their suitcases "Xiaohua" because they are easy to push.

A girl named her slippers "crystal shoes". When she puts them on when she gets home from get off work, she feels like she can be a princess at will.

Some people call their wallet "flat" or "empty", but they wish it to be full soon every day.

One writer named his computer "Swoosh," praying that it would run at super-speed.

As humans, we have strong social cognitive abilities, which allow us to think, judge and understand the emotions and personality traits of other individuals. This ability also extends to inanimate individuals - we can perceive personalized characteristics that are consistent with human life, growth and preferences from a variety of inanimate objects, so we instinctively anthropomorphize them and give them a name.

We prefer to name the objects we like.

There are more specific reasons behind naming objects. One of them is that we want to strengthen our relationship with it. This is why we tend to name things we like.

Epley once conducted a survey of nearly 900 listeners of the popular radio program "Car Talk". The results showed that love for cars is the most important factor in the reasons why a person names a car. The more the owner likes a car, the more likely he or she is to imagine it as a being with thoughts, beliefs and personality. Other factors include the time the car has been driven and the safety of the car.

Social psychology believes that people’s social attributes make them have the urge to establish intellectual or emotional connections with the objects they like. In other words, the more people like something, the more they tend to communicate with it (person or object), such as strengthening connections and increasing intimacy.

Giving inanimate objects a unique name is just practicing this impulse. After all, no one understands them better than you. In the eyes of many people, this is also a kind of ritual in life. Using a name can simply express your love. As for those things that you hate or don’t feel anything about, they don’t seem to deserve nice names.

Of course, strengthening the relationship with an object through naming is not only a way to express love, but also a way for many people to express ownership.

Give the uncontrollable a name and hope it works

In addition to establishing connections and strengthening relationships, naming objects sometimes also implies "expressing expectations."

In Homer's early epics, we can read some plots of naming ships. For boatmen who deal with water, boats can be said to be the most important partners. They hope to strengthen the stability of the boats and allow them to better protect themselves by giving them a name.

Precisely because the operating conditions of some objects are difficult to absolutely control, when faced with these objects, people want to give them names, thereby psychologically reducing their unpredictability and increasing a sense of trust and control, such as cars, ships, computers, stocks, etc.

For example, a study published in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology found that anthropomorphism increases people’s trust in self-driving cars. When self-driving cars have more anthropomorphic features, such as names and intelligent voices, they are more likely to gain people’s trust.

After all, objects with anthropomorphic features are more likely to make people feel that they are their "buddies": they have ideas, can act, and can even communicate with themselves. In other words, naming an object is also an extension of the meaning of "serving me" - giving it a name will make it listen to my commands more. The sense of trust and control brought about by this will make people feel more at ease.

In addition, the study found that the lonelier a person feels, the more motivated he is to name inanimate objects. This is because people who lack social relationships may try to establish connections with animals and objects to make up for the lack of social life. In the movie "Cast Away", Chuck, played by Tom Hanks, drew a face on the volleyball that was the only companion on the desert island, and kept calling it - Wilson!

Wilson without hair growing out丨Movie "Cast Away"

In short, naming inanimate objects is a very normal thing, maybe because of love, or because of fear, anyway, it is not entirely out of childishness!

References

1.Why People Name Their Machines Anthropomorphizing devices makes humans feel like machines work for them. Adrienne lafrance. June 23, 2014

2.The mind in the machine: Anthropomorphism increases trust in an autonomous vehicle,. Adam Waytza, JoyHeafnerb, NicholasEpley. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, Volume 52, May 2014, Pages 113-117

3. https://www.thecut.com/2017/11/the-psychology-of-giving-human-names-to-your-stuff.html

4.https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2014/06/why-people-give-human-names-to-machines/373219/

Author: DING

Editor: Li Xiaoqiu