# Category 13 — Anthropomorphism and User Perception

*Last updated: April 2026. Reflects literature through April 2026.*

This category covers how users perceive AI as more or less human, what cues drive that perception,
which measurement instruments exist to quantify it, and what the ethical, commercial, and emotional
consequences are when humanization succeeds or fails. It spans the foundational social psychology
(CASA, mind perception theory, Turing test variants), industry frameworks and debates (NN/g, HAX,
Anthropic, Stanford HAI, ACL 2025), open benchmarks and tooling (AnthroScore, AnthroBench,
HumanAgencyBench, Cheng et al. de-anthropomorphization taxonomy), the commercial landscape from
voice-agent vendors to text-humanizer SaaS, and the ethnographic record from Reddit and Hacker
News of users who already live with the consequences.

## Angle Files

- [A-academic.md](./A-academic.md) — 29 papers (22 foundational + 7 new 2025–2026): CASA / Media
  Equation, mind perception theory (Gray/Wegner Agency × Experience), validated HRI scales
  (Godspeed, IDAQ, RoSAS), uncanny valley, Jones & Bergen Turing test, trust calibration,
  parasocial / companion bonds, and critical framings (Abercrombie "Mirages", Shanahan "Role play",
  Shneiderman, Weizenbaum). New additions: Guingrich & Graziano longitudinal RCT (AIES 2025),
  Cheng et al. de-anthropomorphization taxonomy (ACL 2025 Best Paper), Neugnot-Cerioli et al.
  adolescent-AI synthesis (arXiv:2603.06960, March 2026), Lee et al. 4-dimensional conversational-AI
  anthropomorphism scale (2025), Reani et al. Fundamental Over-Attribution Error (2025), Sesame
  CSM voice uncanny valley crossing (Feb 2025), Anthropic 81k-user global study (March 2026).

- [B-industry.md](./B-industry.md) — 27 essays and posts (23 original + 4 new 2025–2026):
  NN/g (five pieces including "Humanizing AI Is a Trap" and "4 Degrees of Anthropomorphism"),
  Microsoft HAX Toolkit, Anthropic (Claude's Character, Persona Vectors, Persona Selection Model,
  emotion-circuit interpretability), Stanford HAI / Digital Economy Lab / FAccT / SCALE, UX
  Collective, Smashing Magazine, Dan Saffer, BotWash, Open Ethics. New additions: APA Monitor
  (Jan/Feb 2026) on AI companions and deskilling, KPMG/Melbourne global trust study (N=48,000+),
  Cheng et al. ACL 2025 Best Paper, ICLR 2025 blogpost on combinatorial anthropomorphism effects.
  Documents the hardened shared vocabulary and the polarized safety/legibility vs.
  character/relationship camps. Anti-humanization is now an engineering deliverable, not just a
  design recommendation.

- [C-opensource.md](./C-opensource.md) — 25 open tools and benchmarks (22 original + 3 new
  2025–2026): Microsoft HAX Playbook, Google PAIR Guidebook, AnthroScore (EACL 2024),
  HumT/DumT/SocioT, Google DeepMind AnthroBench (14 behaviors, arXiv:2502.07077), HumanAgencyBench
  (6 dimensions), AgencyBench, Jones & Bergen live Turing site, Chatbot Arena / FastChat, HELM,
  GAICo, classical HRI scale templates (Godspeed / RoSAS LaTeX, UEQ-S Python), HRI Scale Database
  (GMU), and adversarial detection benchmarks. New additions: Sesame CSM voice model (Feb 2025,
  crossed voice uncanny valley; Meta acquired team), Cheng et al. de-anthropomorphization toolkit
  (ACL 2025 Best Paper), Guingrich & Graziano 21-day RCT (AIES 2025).

- [D-commercial.md](./D-commercial.md) — 20-plus commercial entities across three tiers: UX
  research platforms (UserTesting, Maze, Dovetail), design consultancies (IDEO, frog, Fjord /
  Accenture Song, Atin Studio), and embodied / voice / text-humanization vendors (Soul Machines,
  UneeQ, D-ID, Synthesia, HeyGen, Hume AI, ElevenLabs, Inworld, Sierra, Decagon, Replika /
  Character.AI, Undetectable AI, Humbot, StealthGPT). Includes the Soul Machines Feb 2026
  bankruptcy and ElevenLabs $11B valuation as structural market signals. Updated to reflect:
  Sesame voice uncanny valley crossing (Feb 2025); APA Monitor companion deskilling framing
  (2025–2026); KPMG global trust study; adolescent regulatory trajectory.

- [E-practical.md](./E-practical.md) — 24 community posts and practitioner pieces (21 original +
  3 new 2025–2026): r/ChatGPT, r/Replika, r/CharacterAI, r/MyBoyfriendIsAI, r/artificial, Hacker
  News (Jones & Bergen 2024 / 2025, Lemoine / LaMDA arc, Sesame voice demo), OpenAI developer
  forum, dev.to, Medium (Park, Burkert), UX Studio (Pető), LessWrong, and YouTube. New additions:
  APA Monitor Oct 2025 on teens/AI friendship; r/artificial "friendly vs. friend" gap update;
  Frontiers Psychology 2026 systematic review on human-AI attachment pathways. Primary source for
  the patch-breakup phenomenon, the specific-callback-as-listening finding, the Jones & Bergen
  persona recipe as practical baseline, the duration-dependency of perceived humanness, and the
  newly named "social-skill deskilling" failure mode.

## Synthesis and Legacy Summary

- [SYNTHESIS.md](./SYNTHESIS.md) — the distilled synthesis across all five angles
- [INDEX.md](./INDEX.md) — legacy category summary — superseded by SYNTHESIS.md, preserved for
  traceability
