Affection for cohabitant toy dolls

摘要

In an unprecedented phenomenon characterizing a new kind of relationship between humans and artifacts, a craze within middle-aged people for a toy doll is analyzed. In this paper, we deal with a talking toy doll. Specifically, 51 fan letters and 271 web site postings spontaneously sent to the toy company are analyzed in terms of their communicative functions and affective-cognitive contents. The results indicate that (a) the doll is simultaneously seen as both an artifact and a cohabitant (b) the doll owners attribute positive feelings in terms of both mental and physical states to the doll, (c) the doll owners believe that the utterances of the doll facilitate interaction with family members and with friends, and that (d) affections are evoked through owner actions toward the artifact. Based on these results, we propose a cognitive model of cognitive activity with artifacts. Copyright