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There’s generally a large pushback against over-anthropomorphization in the scientific community I think frequently to push back a bit on the public only focusi
by taurath 8y ago
There’s generally a large pushback against over-anthropomorphization in the scientific community I think frequently to push back a bit on the public only focusing on the most charismatic animals, and in the general public especially when people are confronted with the meat industry.
The problem is that field researchers who study almost species (especially mammals) tend to differentiate personalities and a lot of human like traits.
- anigbrowl 8y agoUnderstandable, but caution doesn't validate his own alternative claims. I was already in s skeptical mod from the mention by another person in the article of the 'alpha wolf', a ethological concept which has been discredited for a while now but which refuses to die. https://io9.gizmodo.com/why-everything-you-know-about-wolf-packs-is-wrong-502754629 https://io9.gizmodo.com/why-everything-you-know-about-wolf-p... has a good summary of the rise and fall of this animal behavior theory. Certainly over-anthropomorphization can lead people to make foolish assumptions, but the notion that animal behavior is fundamentally different from our own rather than existing on some spectrum of cognitive complexity is not really scientific either.