Shimeji mushrooms that look “emotional”: how appearance-motion interaction can elicit emotional state attribution to objects

Feeling that a non-human object has emotions (hereinafter referred to as “emotional state attribution”) is generally known as animacy perception. Previous studies have considered appearance and motion separately as factors that evoke emotional state attribution. Thus, if both the degree of human likeness in an object’s shape and the presence or absence of motion are considered simultaneously, we must consider whether strong emotional state attribution occurs even for objects that are not human-like in shape. In this study, we experimentally investigated the influence of human likeness in shape and movements evoking social relations on emotional state attribution, including their interaction, using three types of objects (human figure, shimeji mushroom, and match). In Experiments 1 and 2, although the human figure was rated as more human-like than the shimeji mushroom in terms of shape, emotions were attributed more strongly to the shimeji mushroom than to the human figure when accompanied by movements that evoked social relationships. The results suggest that people may attribute emotions more strongly to objects that resemble humans only to a certain extent in terms of shape when they show movements that evoke social relations.