Why do we talk about plants?

2010/03/06 Galarraga Aiestaran, Ana - Elhuyar Zientzia

• Giza zientziak

Attributing to human characteristics is called anthropomorphication or humanization; the term "anthropomorphication" was invented by the Greek philosopher Xenophanes, by revealing the similarity of the gods to believers: the Greek gods had white skin and clear eyes, while the Africans had dark skin and eyes.

The authors of the article consider that humanization has important consequences. Among other things, moral attention is due to being, alive or not, to which human characteristics have been given and cares. In addition, this humanized man is responsible for his behavior and, therefore, deserves a prize or punishment according to what he does.

On the other hand, psychologists have investigated what we humanize, because not all beings are equal. Thus, psychologists have discovered that one of the factors that influences it is similarity, that is, if the being in question resembles people in their behavior or physical appearance, has more chances of being humanized than another being. For example, we more easily humanize a plant (born, grows and dies), a car (moves) or a dummy (similar in appearance) than a refrigerator or a wardrobe. Another factor is solitude: people with a poor social relationship tend to take things or animals as people.

It includes a practical aspect. In fact, the World Meteorological Organization names hurricanes and storms. At first they put the names of the saints, of the girlfriends of the fishermen and of the politicians who did not like them, and they continue with that custom. This facilitates communication and helps to take effective measures and disseminate information, according to psychologists.

Deshumanization

Psychologists have also analyzed the opposite trend, that is, dehumanization, the consideration of people as things or animals. Some remarkable examples are the one made by the Nazis with the Jews and the one made by American soldiers with the Iraqi prisoners in Abu-Ghraib. In their opinion, these examples suggest that participants feel partakers of a group and meet to face the stranger. In these cases, the tendency to dehumanization would help strengthen the group.

Therefore, the authors of the article consider that having close social links is good for the individual, but it can be a tendency to dehumanization and, therefore, it can have negative consequences for those outside the group.

In the opinion of psychologists, to understand the behaviors of people it is important to humanize and dehumanize, that both continue investigating and finish the article with an illustrative example. Two bills were passed in California in 2008. With the second law proposition, the cattle farms have more space than until then, while according to the octave, homosexual couples were removed from them some rights that matched the married ones. Opposition and repulsion to human behavior.

Published in Gara