Parenting Journal · Volume 1 · Issue 2 · Licensed source edition
Anthropomorphizing Technology: A Conceptual Review of Anthropomorphism Research and How it Relates to Children’s Engagements with Digital Voice Assistants
Originally published 2021-11-23 · Integrative Psychological & Behavioral Science
Springer Science and Business Media LLC · DOI 10.1007/s12124-021-09668-y ↗
AI / system type
Voice assistants / conceptual evidence review
Child-facing evidenceExamines children or child-focused systems. Transfer to everyday family life must be assessed separately.
The AI connection
Focuses substantially on children’s engagement with AI-enabled digital voice assistants such as Alexa, Siri and Google Assistant.
Why this reading matters
Clarifies a central concept underlying children’s trust in personable AI interfaces and cautions against simplistic interpretations.
Editorial reading guide · Trust
What does it mean when a child speaks to a voice assistant as though it were a person?
The review helps parents interpret claims that children treat voice assistants as friends or persons without assuming every social behavior has the same meaning.
Study context
Published anthropomorphism and child–voice-assistant literature; no new child sample
Age / stage: Children; developmental stages vary across reviewed research
Read with three questions
- How are descriptive, normative and explanatory uses of anthropomorphism different?
- Which assumptions about children’s understanding are challenged?
- Why does a conceptual review not establish an intervention’s benefits or harms?
Keep the limits in view
The work is a conceptual synthesis, not a systematic effectiveness review or new experiment. Broad technological categories and theoretical choices limit empirical conclusions.
The text below is the original article’s licensed repository edition. Its wording is not rewritten. Use the Paper Agent beside the text to locate evidence; open the source for figures, tables and complete context.
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Original authorship, publication date, journal and DOI are preserved. This issue’s TRICK placement and reading questions are editorial additions, not claims made by the original authors.
Janik Festerling; Iram Siraj (2021). Anthropomorphizing Technology: A Conceptual Review of Anthropomorphism Research and How it Relates to Children’s Engagements with Digital Voice Assistants Integrative Psychological & Behavioral Science. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12124-021-09668-y
Permissions checked against the saved article notice; repository publication notices screened 2026-11-04. This is not a new peer-review decision. The source authors and publishers are not represented as endorsing this issue.