User:Alvis/Anthropomorphism

The motivation for mankind to see himself in his surroundings is strong, and must be considered when making edits.

Whenever possible, articles should not attribute human characteristics to other animals, plants, inanimate objects, forces, or concepts.

Such attributions are not able to be supported by evidence, and thus cannot contribute meaningfully to Wikipedia.

For example, pages describing dog breeds should not include mentions of "loyal" or "loving" breeds, as it is impossible (with known scientific methods) to provide evidence of these animals acting based on internal motivations of "loyalty" or "love". The Dutch_Shepherd_Dog article describes the breed as "intelligent, brave, loyal, and affectionate." With the possible exception of intelligence (as evaluated against other dogs), none of these claims are citable to scientific sources or even able to be measured quantitatively.

While these behaviors may have stimuli and reactions that match up with those of behaviors directly influenced by human emotion, it is irresponsible to describe animal behavior in terms of human emotion.