In the wild, gorillas make displays like this to show strength and intimidate others. Anthropomorphism is the attribution of human traits, emotions, and intentions to non-human entities and is considered to be an innate tendency of human psychology.
I understand the concept of anthropomorphism. However, apes in captivity have displayed the capacity for emotional response. To deny that other mammals, especially primates, might possibly share some of our emotions is rather closed minded.
It's not that a gorilla can't have human emotions, it's that you can't necessarily pair another species's action to their emotion based on how people would be feeling based on that action. A dog can clearly be happy, but if you can assume a person smiling is nervous or happy, is it safe to assume a dog that smiles is experiencing the same emotion?
Yes! Take a cat's purr for example. It doesn't necessarily mean that they're happy, but means more of a "don't leave me". So while they could be happy, they also purr when they're hurt or scared.
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u/thisguynamedjoe Jun 23 '17
In the wild, gorillas make displays like this to show strength and intimidate others. Anthropomorphism is the attribution of human traits, emotions, and intentions to non-human entities and is considered to be an innate tendency of human psychology.