Anthropomorphism

Chapter 12 endnote 52, from How Emotions are Made: The Secret Life of the Brain by Lisa Feldman Barrett.
Some context is:

Mental inference toward animals is not a bad thing in itself ​— ​it’s completely normal.

I’ve avoided the term “anthropomorphism,” which means to attribute human characteristics to something that is not human, such as an animal or object. In science, this word is a little grenade that scholars lob at one another during debates, when one accuses the other of sloppy thinking. I'm not sure this term is not useful, because anthropomorphism is just mental inference, and different names tempt us to believe in different processes.

You and I categorize animals’ movements and vocalizations and infer mental causes (an emotion) not because we are sloppy thinkers, but because it’s normal to do so. The brain always turns sensations into meaningful experiences and perceptions.

Scientists must avoid anthropomorphism when interpreting experiments, lest they commit the mental inference fallacy and bias their results.