Relationship Effects in Psychological Explanations of Nonhuman Behavior

for their help in preparing software and materials and collecting and coding data for the experiments. ABSTRACT Research suggests that close relationships with animals encourage psychological explanations of their behavior. We report three experiments in which we manipulated participants' ownership of an imagined dog (experiment 1), an animated object (experiment 2), and a real pet fish (experiment 3). Ownership in experiments 1 and 2 predicted more psychological explanations of behavior. Ownership in experiment 3 predicted commitment and affection for the fish, which in turn predicted more psychological explanations. We discuss alternative processes whereby social relationships give rise to psychological explanations of behavior.