Imaginary companions: A meta-analytic investigation on anthropomorphism and chronic loneliness

Loneliness is among the subjective human experiences that can trigger a wide range of psychological, emotional, and even physical reactions. Anthropomorphism, the attribution of human-like characteristics to a non-human entity, represents a coping strategy that may restore a person's sense of social connectedness. The current literature on loneliness and anthropomorphic processes is sparse and inconsistent, so we conducted a multilevel meta-analysis to test the robustness of this relationship by estimating the mean overall effect size of the correlation between chronic loneliness and anthropomorphism. In addition, we conducted several mixed-effect models to test for the presence of moderating effects. The results suggest no significant relationship between chronic loneliness and anthropomorphism. However, we observed that individualist cultures tended to anthropomorphise non-human entities more than collectivist cultures do.