When Shapes Come to Life: Exploring the Perception of Consciousness in Animated Objects

Abstract

Humans frequently attribute consciousness and human-like qualities to non-human entities, such as puppets, robots, and animated shapes. This tendency, known as anthropomorphism, is rooted in social cognition and perceptual mechanisms, and has important implications for empathy, interaction, and the development of artificial agents. This study investigated how motion characteristics and contextual priming influence the perception of consciousness in non-human animated objects. In a behavioral survey, participants (N = 77) viewed four short videos depicting geometric shapes engaging in different motion patterns—random, goal-directed, socially interactive, and reactive—and rated each on perceived consciousness, intentionality, social attribution, and lifelikeness. Participants were randomly assigned to one of three priming conditions: anthropomorphic, mechanistic, or neutral. Results showed that motion type strongly influenced consciousness-related ratings, with goal-directed and socially interactive motions eliciting significantly higher attributions of agency and lifelikeness than random or reactive motion. In contrast, priming conditions did not produce statistically significant effects. Autism Spectrum Quotient (ASQ) scores were included as an exploratory variable but were not significantly associated with consciousness ratings. These findings underscore the salience of motion dynamics in shaping intuitive mind perception and offer empirical support for motion-based models of agency attribution in non-human forms.