Why do we enjoy toys with human likenesses?

Toys provide an outlet for the imagination, and a way for children to practice human interactions and play out situations that they may not normally encounter. They allow us, in our youth, to expand the horizons of our experience in a relatively safe and secure environment. As we age we rely on toys less and less, as we have greater freedom of movement to have these experiences in the real world, and as our reliance on imagination is replaced with the reference material of memory. “Play” in the sense of playing with toys is not that different than play in the sense of playing a movie, or a stage play. These play sessions are fictional scenarios that we are allowing to play out so we can observe and learn from them, and the toys we use are the props and actors of these scenarios.

Toys with human likenesses resonate especially well because they more easily stand in for other people in these fantasies. Toy cars and blocks and so on work great as the props and backdrops of these scenarios, but it is the actors that are the important part of the play. Animals and the like can make for a good stand in, but nothing quite matches the simulation capability of a human or humanoid toy. This is also why it is so common for stuffed animals to be personified by children.

One of the more common scenarios is adulthood. A child will often feel relatively powerless in the world, as they have little to no autonomy or power of their own. Toys follow their rules, as they must obey their parents. Having human like toys gives the child a chance to be their own version of an adult, or even a parent. They control the narrative, they control the toy’s “life”. This comes across especially well with “baby dolls” as the child can “raise” the baby using the lessons they are learning themselves.

Another factor involved is the basic human tendency to find tiny humans “cute”. This, of course, is a biological imperative built into our primitive brains to keep us from eating babies and children, or from tossing them off of cliffs. Toys, especially dolls, trigger the edges of this instinctual reaction, so we find them endearing.

*Disclamer: “Facts” are not to be confused with actual facts. “Facts” are meant to sound at least vaguely plausible, but have undergone no actual research and any relation to real answers to questions is entirely accidental.