Wilson

Science Explains Wilson the Volleyball

January 22, 2008, 1:31 pm

By JOHN TIERNEY

http://tierneylab.blogs.nytimes.com

Wilson, Tom Hank’s companion in “Castaway,” was part of a study at the University of Chicago into lonely people’s penchant for naming inanimate objects. 
(20th Century Fox and Dreamworks LLC/Associated Press Photo)

I have never understood why Wilson didn’t get an Oscar for his performance in “Castaway.” The volleyball stole the movie! But now at least we have a scientific explanation for his existence.

“Castaway depicts a deep truth about the irrepressibly social nature of Homo sapiens,” says John Cacioppo, one of the researchers at the University of Chicago and Harvard who studied people’s tendency to anthropomorphize inanimate objects. The results of their experiments are to be published in the February issue of Psychological Science.

The researchers did not actually maroon subjects on an island to see if they started painting a face on a volleyball and addressing it by name. But in one experiment, as the University of Chicago reports, “the team found a correlation between how lonely people felt and their tendency to describe a gadget in terms of humanlike mental states.” The team also found that lonely people were more likely to believe in the supernatural, whether it be God, angels or miracles, than when they were not feeling lonely.

“If we made them feel lonely, they were also more likely to describe a pet, even if it wasn’t their own pet, as having humanlike mental states that were related to social connection, like being more thoughtful, considerate and compassionate,” said Nicholas Epley, another of the Chicago researchers. “It’s something special about loneliness.” Feeling fearful, for instance, didn’t produce the same effects.

“Non-human connections can be very powerful,” Dr. Epley said. “A brain’s not so sensitive to whether it’s a person or not. If it’s something that has a lot of traits associated with what it means to be a human, then all the better for us, it seems.”

It may not come as a great shock to learn that lonely people find odd company, but the research does at least confirm that science imitates art. And while anthropomorphizing objects may seem pathetic — Wilson had far more gravitas than Tom Hanks — there’s a certain healthy self-preservation in making do with things like volleyballs. Loneliness, as the researchers note, is a greater risk for morbidity and mortality than cigarette smoking. So if you can’t talk to with the ones you love, talk to the ones you’re with.

I’m not sure I’ve actually conversed with objects (except for cursing), but I did name my first computer (Wilma) and one of my cars (Odysseus). Does this make me lonely? How many inanimate friends have you anthropomorphized?

More important, when will science explain the reluctance of the Academy to even nominate Wilson? Do humans nurse deep-seated speciesist prejudice against sporting goods? Further research is clearly needed.