Research published in the journal ‘Personality and Individual Differences’ has highlighted a growing tendency to apply human qualities to machines.
Jacob A. Benfield and colleagues from Colorado State University looked at the personality inventories of some 204 undergraduate drivers. Amazingly they found not just a strong tendency to name (34%) and apply gender (55%) to vehicles but also complete unanimity in their willingness to discuss a vehicle’s ‘personality’.
Indeed, ‘vehicle personality’ may one day be employed as a tool in predicting the aggressive predisposition of certain drivers. Moreover, future legislation could be employed to create more agreeable road vehicles or to confine certain personality types to certain vehicles only. Changing cars, for example, may be a help in reducing a driver’s levels of aggression. Cars, like pets it seems, tend to take on the characteristics of their owners both for good and for ill. Prospective technical writers please take note.
English is unusual in that it has only one form of the definite article, unlike French and German. Yet I often wondered why it feels so natural to refer to ships, planes and cars as 'she'. Strange thought, but perhaps it's because they can 'contain' people and carry them around, a bit like a pregnant female. There're certainly connotations of the maternal at play!
ReplyDeleteGood point,
ReplyDeleteI suspect it has a lot to do with male chauvanism.The bible says that God created Eve from one of Adam's ribs and thus created a secondary role for women thereafter. Now, however, biblical scholars are finding older references in forgotten scriptures to a female who was the equal of Adam.In short, new perspectives are taking a more gender equitable view of the role of women.About time too!
When a man refers to his car as "she", it means that he values it, much the way he valued the original "she" in his life: his mother! This is my theory.
ReplyDeleteOf course, there is the other logical possibility, of the man whose grammar is somewhat imperfect.
Women. I have observed, rarely refer to their cars as "she". This may mean that they either have a better grasp of English grammar, or that they they understand the difference between cars and people. My personal opinion is that women can generally tell a man/woman from a machine!
Don't go there, Maureen!
ReplyDeleteThanks for your comments but what about women? Do they really have expectations about potential partners based on their fathers. I am all ears;-0
ReplyDeleteI would have to agree with Maureen on this point. Although machines are only objects, we do form relationships with them. All my life I have heard of cars being "baptised" and referred to mostly with female names. The upkeep and maintainance of machines is a labour of love, a beneficial investment. Whatever about owners of machines but inventors must feel an intense personal connection to their creation having dedicated a portion of their lives to them.
ReplyDeleteThe title of your post reminds me of the artist David Carr, who was pro technology and saw the bond between man and machine becoming more and more intertwined
http://www.turnerbennett.com/paintingdetails.asp?paintingid=36&paintingname=CARR%2C+DAVID
This is great stuff and shows great 'cognitive presence' from yeah all. Given that everyone loves technology on this course could anyone envisage a day when humans become part machine-Cyborgs if like? What would a Cyborg tutor be like?
ReplyDeleteHm.. In a word, 'no'. But! Machines already help people a lot, biologically. Think of Stephen Hawking, pacemakers, and the future potential for mechanical organs to replace damaged biological ones.
ReplyDeleteMelanie makes a good point about machines being a labour of love. But I think humans have a natural tendency to anthropomorphise absolutely everything, from volcanoes to animals to storm systems. I think it helps us, as a species, to relate to the world around us.
Thanks for all these comments. See yeah around campus during the next few weeks and of course the summer term. Bet yeah forget that it was a term ha ha :-)
ReplyDelete