Maciej Musiał, Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, PL

This paper aims to understand why human beings tend to develop empathetic attitudes towards robots by presenting a hypothesis about the presence of magical thinking in interactions with robots. Therefore, whilst much research studies the issue of empathetic attitudes towards robots from the perspective of the natural sciences by referring to biological features of the human brain, this paper investigates it from the perspective of the humanities by referring to humans’ cultural features. After establishing animation as a necessary condition of empathy towards robots, it is pointed out that animation is one of the main features of magical thinking described by philosophers, developmental psychologists, psychiatrist and anthropologists as typical for children, members of “primitive” societies and individuals with mental disorders. The presence of further features of magical thinking in empathetic relationships with robots is analyzed. Yet, the paper also indicates the differences between magical thinking in its typical contexts and magical thinking in the context of interactions with robots. Furthermore, possible causes of the presence of magical thinking in relations with robots are discussed.