Level of Education of Students Involved
Undergraduate
Faculty Sponsor
Abbie Thompson
College
College of Arts & Sciences (CAS)
Discipline(s)
Psychology
Presentation Type
Poster Presentation
Symposium Date
Spring 4-24-2025
Abstract
Anthropomorphism, the attribution of human characteristics to animals or objects, is often present in children’s literature. Research has shown personification of non-human entities affects the way children experience the world and their thinking about non-human entities (Ganea et al., 2014). The rates of anthropomorphism that children are exposed to is unknown. Therefore, in our study, we analyzed the prevalence rates of anthropomorphism in children’s literature from the 100 most checked out books from two Indiana counties: Porter and Stark (a rural and an urban county), based on circulation data from 2023. To analyze the prevalence of anthropomorphism in children’s books, we developed a coding scheme that characterizes the main character’s species, environment, and features. We expect anthropomorphism to be very prevalent in children’s books. We created a composite score to indicate the amount of variation in anthropomorphism present across the books, ranging from 0 to 12, with higher scores indicating more anthropomorphic features. Once all 200 books are coded, we will run a t-test to determine if there is a difference in the composite score between counties. We will also run a chi square test to understand if there are similar rates of the types of main characters among the counties. This study is foundational in understanding the base rate of anthropomorphism in children’s literature, which will allow researchers to explore the impacts that this has on children’s view of the world.
Recommended Citation
Mihevc, Mary Beth; Moore, Kaitlyn; and Martins Pina, Larissa, "Who’s That?: Prevalence of Anthropomorphism in Children’s Literature" (2025). Symposium on Undergraduate Research and Creative Expression (SOURCE). 1411.
https://scholar.valpo.edu/cus/1411
Biographical Information about Author(s)
Mary Beth Mihevc is a senior psychology and music major. She plans to attend graduate school for school psychology.
Kaitlyn Moore is a junior studying public health and minoring in psychology. She plans to work as a clinical research coordinator.
Larissa Martins Pina is a senior psychology major. She plans to work providing support to children in non-profit organizations.