Effects of Disruption of Structure and Motion on Perceptions of Social Causality

Abstract

Subjects viewed and wrote free response descriptions of one of four short video displays. These displays consisted of either the classic Heider and Simmel animated film or one of three versions of the film that had been altered with a digital special effects generator In these altered versions, either (a) dynamic aspects of the original film were disrupted but structural properties preserved, (b) structural aspects of the film were disrupted but dynamic properties preserve or (c) both structural and dynamic properties of the film were disrupted. Analyses of subjects' descriptions provided evidence that perceivers' strong inclinations to describe the original display in anthropomorphic terms are largely based on the patterns of motion that characterize the film.