Objects of Desire

Sometimes, when we become attached to an object, we personify it by bestowing on it a pet name. That may be odd, but there's nothing inherently wrong with it. But when we objectify a person, that's a huge problem.

Aggressive cars have headlights that are slanted like narrowed eyes. Friendly cars, on the other hand, have grilles that are upturned like smiles.

Aggressive and friendly cars? You might think that it is kind of strange to attribute human qualities to nonhuman objects. But according to The Atlantic magazine (December 2017), an analysis of car sales in Germany found that people make a link between the two. Even more importantly, they really like them. Car purchasers tend to buy cars with smiling grilles and narrowed headlights because they see these features as signs of desirable qualities: friendliness and aggressiveness.

More and more, we are seeing human qualities in nonhuman things, and we are falling in love with them. Amazon's Alexa is a disk-shaped object that we can talk to, and many Americans are now starting their days by asking Alexa to tell them the weather, play them a song, or give them a recipe for dinner. The device may be leading some children to see a wide range of...