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Part 5 of the 11 part series Golden Rules of Anthropomorphism and Design. 

When a product imitates animal behavior, the strict social rules governing anthropomorphic products don’t apply. People may be much more forgiving when a zoomorphic product makes an error, and fascinated rather than disturbed when it behaves other than expected. Similar to how we think a person walking in circles on the street is weird, but a dog chasing its tail is funny, Sony’s robot dog Aibo is considered adorable, while Honda’s humanoid robot Asimo seems clumsy and slow.

Image via Flicker user pt. For the rest of the series, see part 1, part 2, part 3 and part 4.