Experimental study of apparent behavior. Fritz Heider & Marianne Simmel. 1944

An Experimental Study of Apparent Behavior
Fritz Heider and Marianne Simmel
The American Journal of Psychology
Vol. 57, No. 2 (Apr., 1944), pp. 243-259
(article consists of 17 pages)
Published by: University of Illinois Press
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1416950

Category:

Education

Tags:

• psychology

[garyemiller]

Triangle man hates particle man. They have a fight. Triangle wins. Triangle man.

[mikepalomino]

Interesting. Still not sure how accurate this study could have been - even if the objects are non-human - there IS a story being told here. The Slate article I was reading just now suggests that the participants saw the state of "mind" of these objects and inferred what was happening. Perhaps an update to the study could use a computer simulation with randomized object movements - devoid of a human storyteller - it could be more accurate. (I could be wrong however.)

[VII89]

@mikepalomino As long as it is conceivable that this movements could be caused by a randomized computer output (which they obviously COULD be,,,,infinity+randomness=any possibility), it does not matter if humans or computers were responsible for the "story line".

If it COULD be totally ranomized and the objects have no haman shape connection or whatsoever....than the only thing left is the top-down notion of human social analysis of this movements.

[gatogreensleeves]

I was thinking the same thing as mikepalomino. The movements are still anthropomorphic because humans directed them, but if they were random, there would be more teleological ambiguity. 

[calvinandhodge]

@mikepalomino Well what the study is getting at is our willingness to see human traits in things that don't appear to be human. Rather than seeing a bunch of shapes moving around we inevitably see that narrative.

[mikepalomino]

@rystrel Oooh I see! I was not familiar with that song. Thanks for the heads up :)

[rystrel]

@mikepalomino He was quoting from the song Particle Man by They Might Be Giants.

[gamesDAMNED]

I'm not sure if this animation confirms a "theory of mind," where we project human qualities onto non-human objects, as much as Scott McCloud's theory of icon, from "Understanding Comics." This has more to do with symbolic language than anything else. These "chararcters" are not observed inanimate objects, but icons created by artists. They possess personality because of their creators. Reducing your subjects from people to geometric shapes changes nothing. This is the basis of abstract art.

[mikepalomino]

@garyemiller Heh you should make that into a Haiku.  X ] Did you come here via Slate as well?