To inject some emotion into an emotionless corporation, interact directly with customers, show us a sense of humor, make grammatical mistakes in tweets, or even apologize for a mishap, we suddenly see the corporation as more than just a monolithic organization.
Joshua Knobe and Jesse Prinz wanted to understand which psychological concepts people were willing to apply to corporations.
“Acme Corporation believes that its profit margin will soon increase,” or “Acme Corporation intends to release a new product this January.”
However, the vast majority of people refused to allow companies to have feelings or subjective experiences, so that sentences like this were deemed ridiculous:
“Acme Corporation is now experiencing great joy,” or “Acme Corporation is getting depressed.”