Sliding Scale of Anthropomorphism

Snoop Dogg Dogg, Kotaro Inugami, Wolf O'Donnell, Horndogdog, Scooby-Doo, and a dachshund


Here is a thought! Who amongst you have seen the sight of man turned beast? A hapless few, we trust!...And yet...though we are repelled at the sight of man turned beast...we revel to see beast turned man! When you pass along this thought...remember you saw it in Mad!...And now, our story...
—Mad #19's introduction to their "Mickey Rodent" story

Anthropomorphic Personification means, loosely translated, Humanlike. Since there are many humanlike characters in fiction (for obvious reasons), this page is here to make it clearer what the differences between different levels of anthropomorphism are. Note that the differences are often rather ambiguous. Some characters could actually fit into a few categories. Can get even weirder when trying to categorize an Animate Inanimate Object on this list.

Examples of Sliding Scale of Anthropomorphism include:

Animal Anthropomorphism

Sliding Scale Of Animal Anthropomorphism

  • Human - Just an ordinary, run of the mill human. This is what you need to be to be on this site. Superintelligent chimps are NOT supposed to be given internet privileges, so any of those should go back to their cages right now!
  • Little Bit Beastly - These are on the lower end, they are practically human in every way, if your eyes never reach the top of their head where their ears are, or if you miss that tail behind them. Artistic laziness issues are never in the cards for this; usually this is due to Rubber Forehead Alien, Planet of Hats, or Only Six Faces, because reality is boring. Of course there are other reasons this might show up.
  • Borderline Little Bit Beastly - This form is basically a Petting Zoo Person, but with a more or mostly (but not completely) human-like head. This is what you get when you combine Petting Zoo People traits with Little Bit Beastly traits. They are often treated more like Petting Zoo People than like Little Bit Beastly.
    • Beast Folk - a human (male or female) with animalistic physical and often behavioral traits. Cheetara from Thundercats is technically a Beast Woman, even though she's an evolved cheetah.
  • Petting Zoo People - These are human in as many ways as they are inhuman. On the one hand they will act human, and if you look under the fur you'll find a human skeletal system, for the most part, but they have animal heads instead of human heads, and often tails, wings, and the like. Furries Are Easier to Draw comes into play, as they don't have difficult-to-draw human faces, but the obviously human traits make the characters less alien to the audience, making them easier to take seriously. Also using multiple species makes a cast easier to differentiate, another plus in medias that suffer from Only Six Faces. Females will of course have the obvious sign they are female.
  • Borderline Petting Zoo People - This is what you get when you combine Petting Zoo People traits with Funny Animal traits. Sometimes they will be treated more like Funny Animals, other times, they will be treated more like Petting Zoo People. Male animals of this type are often Top Heavy Guys.
  • Funny Animal - This is where we hit characters who could be human, but Furries Are Easier to Draw. Generally, the majority or most of their mannerisms are that of a human. In some cases, almost all their mannerisms may be that of a human. Artistically, they are usually bipedal and have hands, but otherwise need not resemble humans at all. Mickey Mouse is a terrific example. He is a character who has become humanized to the point that you could replace him with a human and the plot would be nearly identical. He always wears clothes, he goes to work and lives in a house, and... he has a pet dog. This term hails from the golden age of comics.
  • Civilized Animal - This is an intermediary stage between animals who talk and animals who might as well be human. They generally have half the mannerisms of of a human and half the mannerisms of the animal. Bugs Bunny would be an excellent example: he lives in a hole in the forest and is hunted by Elmer Fudd—and he stands upright, wears White Gloves, and tries to take vacations to Aruba. Brian the dog in Family Guy is this trope; he drinks martinis, walks on two legs and goes to college but also barks at people, scratches his butt on the carpet and so forth. Its seminal use in literature is The Wind in the Willows... Which is itself rather confusing at some points (Toad lives in a splendid old Hall, Mole lives in a hole in the ground). However The Wind in the Willows isn't part of the modern canon; it is The Aesop on one level, and a satire on another. Mole and Badger live in holes, but they are more like the hobbit houses of Tolkien's Shire than holes in a literal sense. All the animals are the same, human size.
    • Mouse World is a subtrope of Civilized Animal in which intelligent, well-dressed animals live on the fringes of humanity. Beatrix Potter's Peter Rabbit tales are another example.
  • Partially-Civilized Animal - This is the intermediary stage between the Largely Normal Animal/Speech-Impaired Animal/Talking Animal level (animals who are still unarguably animals, and have mostly animal behavior) and the Civilized Animal level. Generally, the majority of the mannerisms are that of the animal. Examples include the cats and dogs of, well, Cats and Dogs and the owls of the Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole.
  • Talking Animal - This is an animal who can talk as well as a normal human, and who can communicate with humans. However, they still are unarguably animals, and usually have mostly animal behavior (the humans might not like what such animals have to say about them). They may occasionally act more human-like if the need (and Rule of Funny / Rule of Cool) calls for it. Examples include Dinotopia's Ambassador Bix the Protoceratops, TV's Mister Ed, and the animal denizens of Narnia and the Land of Oz.
    • Uplifted Animal is usually here - it's an animal that can talk THANKS TO SCIENCE! or sometimes MAGIC.
  • Speech-Impaired Animal - A animal who can't quite talk. They can usually be understood, but there can and often will be misunderstandings. Like Talking Animals, they may occasionally act more human-like if the need (and Rule of Funny / Rule of Cool) calls for it. Scooby Doo is practically the Trope Maker. This could also include counting horses and transformed humans.
  • Largely Normal Animal - An animal who clearly has thought processes, but doesn't talk freely with humans. LNA characters may talk to each other, essentially having their own language, but humans won't understand them. That is, unless they are a Doctor Dolittle or if the language can be learned. Their thought processes and personality are still very much like that of whatever animal they are. Many of them are able to make human-like arm and hand gestures and some can even grasp objects as if they have opposable thumbs. A few examples are bipedal even if their species isn't naturally so. The cast of Watership Down and the original four legged Garfield fit here. So do Mickey Mouse's dog Pluto the Pup, the original four legged Snoopy from Peanuts, and Krypto the Superdog.
  • Nearly-Normal Animal - An animal that is very much an animal, particularly when it comes to though processes, personality, instincts, priorities, and motivations.
    • Mostly Normal Animals - basically normal animals that have been given clear thought processes as well as a few human and/or some or several doglike characteristics (greater frequency of uttering sounds, human-like expressions) that still don't retract from their animal-ness. These animals don't talk, not even in Animal Talk. These animals don't go beyond being able to make human-like arm or hand gestures occasionally. They stay on all four legs if they are four-legged animals. They are between Largely Normal Animal and Almost Normal Animal.
    • Almost Normal Animals - basically normal animals that have been given very few human and/or a few doglike characteristics (greater frequency of uttering sounds, human-like expressions) that don't retract from their animal-ness but allow audience not well versed in the way of animal behaviour to understand what's going on in the animal's mind. Can be merely a result of Did Not Do the Research, or completely intended. Like MNAs, these animals don't talk, not even in Animal Talk. They don't make human-like arm or hand gestures and they stay on all four legs if they're four-legged animals. Mostly seen in works aimed at children.
  • Animals - They're treated as just that in the work.


Let's start with animals, one of the most common types of anthropomorphism. Anthropomorphic Animals cover a vast ground ranging from animals with a few human-like characteristics to humans with a few animal-like characteristics:

Beast Fables feature animals that range somewhere between Largely Normal Animals/Speech Impaired Animals/Talking Animals and Petting Zoo People. These are Older Than Dirt, which means, in the oldest versions, it's hard to tell if the original teller saw actual animals as equal to people, or saw them as humanoid versions of animals; a character may behave as a human one minute and a Talking Animal the next.

Sliding Scale of Animal Body Type Anthropomorphism

  • Body Type 1: Little Bit Beastly: They are characters who appear virtually human and have completely human skin, but feature the added characteristics of an animal's ears, tail, and sometimes claws, horns, Cute Little Fangs. The special abilities and/or instincts of that animal may also be present. Unlike Type 2, this type has a completely human nose. There are two types of Little Bit Beastly, Kemonomimi and Gijinka. Kemonomimi look like (or basically are) humans, but have the added characteristics of an animal's ears and tail. Gijinka also look like humans that have the added characteristics of an animal's ears and tail, but they are regarded as actual creatures or animals. Cat Girls are a good example of this Type.
  • Body Type 2: Borderline Little Bit Beastly: They have a animal-accented human face and body frame with the animal's ears, nose, tail (where applicable), markings, and sometimes fur, feathers, or scales. They have a nearly human-shaped head and little or no semblance of their species' muzzle. If they are a bird, they have the beak or bill respective to their species that is small regardless of their species on an otherwise human-shaped head. Unlike many Petting Zoo People (Type 3), their hands and feet look basically like animal-accented human hands and feet respectively. They usually have human-like breasts and usually have humanlike (often stylable) hair (or feathers if a bird) on their heads, whether male or female.
  • Body Type 3: Petting Zoo People: They resemble an animal's head and tail (where applicable) placed on an animal accented human body frame. They have either a completely animal-shaped head, a largely animal-shaped head, or a half human/half animal-shaped head. They have the muzzle, beak, or bill of their respective species. They can have feet that are either plantigrade or digitigrade (or unguligrade if a hoofed animal) and usually keep the shape of that of their respective species. They usually possess human-like breasts. A more anthropomorphic variant can have a mostly or nearly human-shaped head with the animal's ears, and muzzle, beak, or bill, animal-accented human hands, and have human-proportioned, plantigrade feet that are either human-shaped or shaped like that of their species. A female will often have humanlike, styleable hair (or feathers if a bird) on her head, though males with similarly humanlike hair (or feathers if a bird) is also common. Humanlike, styleable head hair (or head feathers if a bird) is not exclusive to this type and can sometimes be found on Types 4, 5, and even 6.
  • Body Type 4: Borderline Petting Zoo People: Their bodies look partly humanoid and partly like their species, often they have either humanoid legs and non-humanoid torso, a humanoid torso and non-humaniod legs, or look semi-humanoid all over. Like Type 5, they walk on two legs for at least a good part of the time. Also like Type 5, naturally quadrupedal animals can walk on two legs and on all fours equally well, especially if they are of the humanoid torso/non-humaniod legs type or the semi-humanoid all over type. They can have either digitigrade or plantigrade feet, and they sometimes have human-like breasts. Humanlike, styleable head hair (or head feathers if a bird) is not uncommon to this type.
  • Body Type 6: Animalistic Animals: Animals that have the general body shape and proportions like their respective species and move around the way their species would move around in Real Life. Naturally four-legged animals stay on all fours for the most part; rarely walking on two legs and (usually) not able to walk that way as well as they can on all fours. They can sit up on their haunches (depending on the species in question), stand with their knuckles on the ground (if a monkey or ape), or stand with a typical four-legged stance. Many of them are capable of performing feats that their Real Life physiology generally wouldn't allow, like grasping objects as if they have opposable thumbs or a prehensile tail and being able to make human-like arm and hand gestures, while others are not. Birds can have Feather Fingers, but their wings have to look completely like wings. The majority of Speech Impaired Animals, Talking Animals, and Partially Civilized Animals, and most Nearly Normal Animals are of this body type.


A Note About Insect and Arachnid Anthropomorphism

In many works, especially older works and even in newer works, insects and arachnids (mostly spiders, not so much other arachnids) are drawn in a fashion that makes them look at least somewhat vertebrate-like, especially of the mammalian persuasion.

Anthropomorphism of mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, and other animals is staightforward; you give them human mannerisms, emotions, speech capabilities, and even body shape, but usually keep their basic head shape. But with insects and arachnids, you not only give them human mannerisms, emotions, speech capabilities, and body shape, you also give them human-like, mammal-like, and other otherwise vertebrate-like facial and bodily features even when they're supposed to be completely or mostly normal insects or arachnids in their world. When insects and arachnids are anthropomorphized even slightly, they are drawn with more mammalian traits and fewer traits that would show up on a real insect or arachnid.

Usually, this is to make insects and arachnids resemble humans to varying degrees to make them easier to sympathize with. The fact that they have other mammalian and other vertebrate-like facial and bodily traits, like vaguely dog-shaped noses, is a side effect of this.

Insect and arachnid protagonists are almost always heavily anthropomorphized to make them sympathetic. After all, bugs look bizzarre from a human standpoint, so it's more-or-less impossible to like them when they're drawn realistically.

Aliens

Alien Anthropomorphism

  • Human - Again, this is what you probably are.
  • Transplanted Humans - These aliens actually are humans, and they look like humans, and for the most part they act like humans. It's just that some Ancient Astronauts or somesuch whisked them away from Earth a long time ago. They might have a difference or two, but this is usually explained away as being cultural (if it's a body modification or a way of doing things), genetic engineering, or (if they were transplanted long enough ago) just evolution.
  • Transhumans - If these characters look just like normal humans, save for a few noticeable physical differences like mechanical or biological embellishments, it's because they are normal humans. They're just altered somehow. In older fiction they tend to be involuntarily altered mooks with sad backstories, but are becoming increasingly popular as benevolent characters who have chosen to be altered in hard sci-fi (certainly the increasing acceptance of body art and modification has something to do with this). The fun part is that they may physically resemble any of the other categories on this page...
  • Human Aliens - Aliens that look just like people. They may look a little different, they might have Bizarre Alien Biology, or super advanced technology, or some form of superpowers, but no person would be able to tell the difference. Doctor Who is a good example.
  • Rubber Forehead Aliens - The human-like extraterrestrial equivalent of Humanoid Animals. These guys have only one or two major characteristics that makes them different from humans. They might justify this by saying that they have a common ancestor with or are somehow descended from humans. This usually comes from budget limitations, so you are more likely to see this in live action than in animation. Most Star Trek races, such as Klingons, are a good example.
  • Little Green Men - Not often seen in modern fiction. These guys are usually less humanlike in appearance, but still retain humanlike personality traits. They're even kind of cute sometimes.
  • The Greys - Essentially the alien version of The Fair Folk. They look mostly human—but their psychology is very, very unlike a human's...
  • Insectoid Aliens - These are pretty much exactly what they sound like, and are especially popular non-humanlike aliens. There's something distinctively alien about an insect from a human point of view, so why not scale them up? They tend to have a hive-like social structure, with a few human-like personality touches, and may even be vaguely humanoid in appearance too.
  • Starfish Aliens - Really Alien Aliens. And given the insane variety of life on our planet, it's not unlikely that these are closest to what's really out there.
    • Energy Beings - Aliens that don't even have the decency to take on a physical form for us humans to relate to. Rarely, can be the following category at the same time as well (such as Aphoom Zah, Cthugha and Tru'nembra from the Cthulhu Mythos).
  • Eldritch Abomination - These are sort of off the scale altogether: Aliens that are so alien, they tend to break the brain of a mere human, who was probably expecting something more along the lines of Lt. Worf.

Mechanical anthropomorphism

Anthropomorphism can even be applied to machinery, robots in particular:

Mechanical

  • Human - What you probably are. Of course, some of you may have a pacemaker or a couple of artificial ribs or something, or even an artificial limb, but when it starts encroaching on the below territory, you get a...
  • Cyborg - Human, but with artificial components - they tend to blend with transhumans above. They can range from relatively small replacement parts (Geordi LaForge's eyes in the Star Trek: The Next Generation movies) to complete body replacement with few biological components left, with varying degrees of human appearance (from major Motoko Kusanagi to RoboCop 2).
  • Ridiculously-Human Robots - Robots that are unnecessarily human. They're so human, in fact, that it's hard to distinguish them from real humans. Examples include T-800 from Terminator series.
  • Uncanny Valley Robots - Robots which are almost human, but miss the mark in a few key places, causing people to pick up on the "devil in the details" and regard them as just plain creepy. It is harder to depict these kinds of characters in animation due to the stylization that comes with it.
  • Android robots - Robots which have humanlike body type, but are obviously mechanical in nature. Examples include all kinds of mechs, 90% of Transformers and ASIMO.
    • Fembots - These are specific android robots that are designed to be female.
  • Tin Can Robot - Robot with a round or cylindrical body. Usually not painted and with clearly seen bolts.
  • Robot Buddy - Robots with characteristics of humans or animals, usually with animal-like or human-like (but not too humanlike) body shape. Examples include R2-D2 from Star Wars.
    • Robot Dog: Robots with the characteristics of dogs.
  • Spider Tanks and other mechanoid creatures - This is where robots cease to be individually self-conscious. Examples include all kinds of robotic spiders and insects who are still mobile. This is one of the examples.
  • Industrial robots - These robots are usually immobile and mounted to one place and can consists of a single robotic arm or even simpler structure, with only a limited set of behaviors or functions. All kinds of Sentry Guns commonly found in shoot 'em ups and other video game genres belong here.
  • Grey Goo and other amorphous mechanical stuff - At this point robots become so non-humanlike that it Crosses the Line Twice and becomes creepy again. They start having some extremely weird characteristics.


All kinds of intelligent computers have something common in both ends of the scales.

Plant anthropomorphism

Plants

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