You go to Africa to study elephants. You follow one particular group, and one day you observe the other members of the group gather around a sick and dying elephant. The healthy elephants shuffle and trumpet and act in an agitated manner. You conclude that they are sad because one of their members is dying. Without any other evidence, you have just
A)committed the anthropomorphic error.
B)become involved in the observer effect.
C)engaged in research participant bias.
D)created an empirical fallacy.

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

The anthropomorphic error involves attributing human emotions and behaviors to animals or non-human entities based on human perspectives, which is what the conclusion about the elephants' sadness represents without further evidence to support such a specific emotional state.

You Go to Africa to Study Elephants