Anthropomorphism – the attribution of human qualities to non-human objects – is believed to be a natural tendency which may serve several adaptive functions. One possibility is that anthropomorphism provides an egocentric heuristic by which we can understand the world. It may also be a strategy for reducing our subjective sense of loneliness. However not all humans exhibit the same propensity to anthropomorphise. Recent findings suggest that autistic individuals may be more likely to anthropomorphise than non-autistic individuals. In Study 1 we conducted a large-scale survey of autistic traits and dispositional anthropomorphism in the general population (n = 870). We found that individuals who reported having more autistic traits, had an increased dispositional tendency to anthropomorphise non-human entities. In Study 2 we more closely examined variation in anthropomorphism tendencies in a sample of autistic adults (n = 90) to better understand what might drive increased anthropomorphism in this population. We found that those with greater anthropomorphism tendencies experienced greater levels of self-reported loneliness. We propose that increased anthropomorphism might reflect reduced opportunities for social connection for autistic people and those with more autistic traits.

拟人化——将人类品质归因于非人类物体——被认为是一种自然趋势，可能具有多种适应功能。一种可能性是拟人论提供了一种以自我为中心的启发式方法，我们可以通过它来理解世界。这也可能是一种减少我们主观孤独感的策略。然而，并非所有人类都表现出相同的拟人化倾向。最近的研究结果表明，自闭症患者可能比非自闭症患者更容易拟人化。在研究 1 中，我们对一般人群（n = 870）的自闭症特征和性格拟人进行了大规模调查。我们发现，报告有更多自闭症特征的个体更倾向于将非人类实体拟人化。在研究 2 中，我们更仔细地检查了自闭症成人样本（n = 90）中拟人化倾向的变化，以更好地了解可能导致该人群拟人化增加的原因。我们发现那些具有更大拟人化倾向的人经历了更大程度的自我报告的孤独感。我们提出，拟人化程度的增加可能反映了自闭症患者和具有更多自闭症特征的人社交联系的机会减少。