Anthropomorphobia
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Anthropomorphobia (a portmanteau of anthropomorphic and phobia) is the fear or hate of acknowledging in non-humans qualities we wish to consider only human. Anthropomorphobia is traditionally associated with anxiety responses to fictional animal characters displaying human behavior in works of fiction like The Secret of NIMH. However, with the development of androids and robots that mimic human behavior, and advances in genetic engineering which have created human-animal chimera, or parahumans, such as a human-sheep parahuman[1], the range of potential fears has expanded. The negative emotional response to nonhumans described in the Uncanny Valley concept is the general human response related to anthropomorphobia, but anthropomorphobics have emotional, behavioral and cognitive responses to nonhumans that last far beyond the original anthropomorphic stimulus. Anthropomorphobics report flashes of anxiety when recalling anthropomorphic stimuli, and generalized anxiety about their response to future anthropomorphic stimuli if they go to places where this stimulus might occur, such as theme parks or children's museums. This distinguishes the typical negative response expected regarding the Uncanny Valley hypothesis from a model human anthropomorphobic: a typical person might fear a human-acting non or sub-human, but an extreme anthropomorphobic "fears the fear", having anxiety-related responses about the possibility of potential anthropomorphic experiences in the future.
[edit] Notes
- ^ "Now scientists create a sheep that's 15% human", 27th March 2007.
