When people feel sympathy for inanimate objects, they are anthropomorphizing, attributing human behaviors or feelings to animals or objects who cannot feel the same emotions as we do, Shepard said.

Imagine that: a human face, emerging from the averaging of inanimate objects like combination locks, metal finishes and coffeemakers. And yet, there it is, a face that's recognizably human.

The mind is great at spotting potential friends, even when they’re inanimate. The human mind is not only wired to see faces in non-living beings but also to have an emotional response to them.

He ran about 125 inanimate objects tagged #FacesInThings through the same software and, again after just 15 images, an eerily "average" human face emerged from the compilation (above, right).

When people feel sympathy for inanimate objects, they are anthropomorphizing, attributing human behaviors or feelings to animals or objects who cannot feel the same emotions as we do, Shepard said.

When people feel sympathy for inanimate objects, they are anthropomorphizing, attributing human behaviors or feelings to animals or objects who cannot feel the same emotions as we do, Shepard said.

Objects don’t have feelings, but some people treat them like they do. It’s called anthropomorphizing, and it’s natural to do to objects and animals, experts say.