A new study by Harvard psychology researchers claims to have found the real reason why people like to dress pets like people. According to the study, it’s not just a matter of anthropomorphizing our pets because we think they’re like us (we are using the word “our” in a very general sense here): people also do it to exert control over our environments.
That may be true in a general sense, but how, then, do you explain the unique appeal of pug blogger Winnie Wong‘s pet pug, Shelby, in a Teen Wolf Halloween costume?
Anthropomorphization may be a nut that we’ll eventually be able to crack, but until scientists can discover the unique appeal of lupinization (see: werevampires, weredolphins), we will forever be shrouded in ignorance.
(Winnie Wong via The Stranger)
