Anthropomorphism, not depiction, explains interaction with social robots

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Dawson Petersen, Amit Almor

Published: 01 Jan 2023, Last Modified: 20 Feb 2026Behavioral and Brain SciencesEveryoneRevisionsCC BY-SA 4.0
Abstract: We question the role given to depiction in Clark and Fischer's account of interaction with social robots. Specifically, we argue that positing a unique cognitive process for handling depiction is evolutionarily implausible and empirically redundant because the phenomena it is intended to explain are not limited to depictive contexts and are better explained by reference to more general cognitive processes.