Object personification in autism: This paper will be very sad if you don't read it.
Autistic adults often treat objects like people—ask about it at intake because some find it upsetting.
01Research in Context
What this study did
The team sent a short survey to autistic and non-autistic adults.
They asked how often people give feelings to objects like mugs or toys.
They also asked if the habit feels good, bad, or neutral.
What they found
Autistic adults said they personify objects more often.
Many only noticed they do it when the survey asked.
Some felt upset or ashamed about the habit.
How this fits with other research
Gadow et al. (2006) showed that autistic kids can learn to spot "alive" motion after a quick game.
Chezan et al. (2019) now show the same kids grow up and still treat some objects like people.
The two studies line up: the skill is there, but the bias lingers.
Xenitidis et al. (2010) found that autistic adults put animate words first in sentences, hinting that personification may slip into everyday speech.
Why it matters
During intake, ask clients if they give feelings to items.
If they do, check if it causes shame or anxiety.
A short chat can normalize the trait and lower stress.
Get CEUs on This Topic — Free
The ABA Clubhouse has 60+ on-demand CEUs including ethics, supervision, and clinical topics like this one. Plus a new live CEU every Wednesday.
Add one line to your intake form: "Do you ever feel that objects have feelings? Y/N—brief example."
02At a glance
03Original abstract
Object personification is the attribution of human characteristics to non-human agents. In online forums, autistic individuals commonly report experiencing this phenomenon. Given that approximately half of all autistic individuals experience difficulties identifying their own emotions, the suggestion that object personification may be a feature of autism seems almost paradoxical. Why would a person experience sympathy for objects, when they struggle to understand and verbalise the emotions of other people as well as their own? An online survey was used to assess tendency for personification in 87 autistic and 263 non-autistic adults. Together, our results indicate that object personification occurs commonly among autistic individuals, and perhaps more often (and later in life) than in the general population. Given that in many cases, autistic people report their personification experiences as distressing, it is important to consider the reasons for the increased personification and identify structures for support.
Autism : the international journal of research and practice, 2019 · doi:10.1177/1362361318793408