Inspired by Inoue’s Caress Me and Ella’s Robots Can Have Pretty Privilege, I have been reflecting on how humans project emotions onto artificial creatures and how such projections are shaped by cuteness, intimacy, and interactivity. Inoue emphasizes the comforting power of touch and softness. Her envisioned creature is a soft, padded appendage capable of gently cupping the cheek and performing caressing motions, demonstrating that even minimal gestures can elicit strong emotional responses. Ella highlights the concept of “pretty privilege” in artificial creatures: round shapes, eye-like features, and perceived cuteness increase the likelihood of human attention and care. Both works illustrate para-empathy, anthropomorphism, and object attachment, showing how humans establish emotional bonds with non-human entities.
At the core of these phenomena lie two psychological mechanisms: projection and anthropomorphism. Humans tend to anthropomorphize artificial creatures because they often possess vague life-like traits such as eyes, faces, or body-like shapes. They move, respond, exhibit human-like behaviors, and can interact with us or be “cared for.” They may even “disappear” or “die,” as in the case of electronic pets. These quasi-living characteristics activate attachment, caregiving, and sympathy systems in the human brain. Consequently, the emotions triggered are not fetishistic but protective, resembling the instinctive care we feel for vulnerable or young beings. Objects such as plush toys and soft dolls exemplify what Winnicott calls transitional objects, helping individuals transition from dependence to autonomy. Their comforting qualities arise from softness, stability, unconditional acceptance, non-judgment, and the capacity to serve as emotional projection containers. This multi-layered mechanism, based on the body, projection, and emotional memory, constitutes para-social projected attachment, combining anthropomorphism, projection, and attachment system activation. Human emotional responses to artificial creatures are therefore attachments to “projectable objects” and the quasi-social relationships formed with these life-like entities.
Building on these ideas, I am interested in a more complex question: what happens when a creature we have emotionally invested in begins to degrade, lose its cute appearance, or reveal its mechanical and industrial core? Does the comfort it once provided persist? Can its gestures, responses, and seemingly intentional behaviors maintain our attachment independently of its outward form?
My envisioned creature is initially a small, round mushroom, soft and inviting, with embedded sensors that respond to touch. When interacted with, it behaves like a playful kitten, nudging hands and seeking closeness. This stage elicits care and intimacy. Over time, it naturally decays like a real mushroom, its cap darkening, secreting slime, and eventually exposing sharp, cold mechanical arms and sensors. Even in this state, the internal mechanisms continue the familiar motions. Observers are challenged to reflect on whether they continue to reach out and interact. Is the emotional projection sustained by the original cute appearance or by the anthropomorphic behaviors themselves? This work explores the complexity of human emotional projection and the sources of comfort provided by artificial creatures.