What would it be called if I ascribe adult emotions or feelings to a baby?
Our daughter is just over three months old and often gets a :dubious: expression on her face - I’m sure she’s not really thinking WTF, but it is very hard not to ascribe that emotion to her, particularly if I have just being making funny faces/noises.
I know that it isn’t Anthropomorphism - cause that’s ascribing human characteristics to non-human entities, but what is it that I’m doing?
Ta
Grim
Thinking isn’t an emotion.
The process of thinking is a subset of emotional activity, though, and of course your infant is doing the rudimentary version thereof — noticing patterns, correlating them, taking in sensory input. Were she not doing these things, she would not acquire language, nor would she come to recognize her parents as familiar presences different from other people.
So, having rejected your premise, and therefore rendered your actual question irrelevant, I must also say I don’t know the answer to your actual question, i.e., what you would call it when you ascribe to a person characteristics that that person, for some reason, cannot actually have. Like saying “that gutsy chick’s got balls”? Or “Stevie Wonder is enjoying the sights”?
Thank you for both crushing my fragile spirit and completly failing to answer my question in one bold stroke 
Grim