Insufficient evidence of a positive association between chronic loneliness and anthropomorphism: Replication and extension of Epley, Akalis, et al. (2008).

Human beings have a fundamental need to connect with others. Epley, Akalis, et al. (2008) found that people with higher chronic loneliness had a stronger tendency to anthropomorphize nonhuman objects, presumably for fulfilling unmet needs for social connection. In this Registered Report, we conducted a replication of Epley, Akalis, et al. (2008): Based on the setup of their Study 1, we examined the correlations between loneliness and anthropomorphism of technological gadgets (original Study 1), pets (original Study 3), and belief in supernatural beings (original Study 2), with a large U.S. online sample recruited from MTurk using CloudResearch (n = 885 after exclusions). Meanwhile, we extended the replication by examining the association between belief in free will and anthropomorphism. We found weak-to-no empirical support for the original finding that self-reported chronic loneliness was positively related to anthropomorphism. However, our evidence supports that the perceived controllability of gadgets negatively predicts their anthropomorphism and that free will belief is positively associated with belief in and anthropomorphism of supernatural beings.