Anthropomorphism is defined as the attribution of human characteristics or behaviour to any other nonhuman entity in the environment and includes phenomena as diverse as attributing thoughts and emotions to both domestic and wild animals, to dressing a Chihuahua dog as a baby, or interpreting deities as human. Several authors have addressed the multifaceted nature of anthropomorphism identified two different ways in which people engage in anthropomorphic thinking. He defined ‘interpretative’ anthropomorphism as the attribution of intentions, beliefs and emotions to nonhuman agents based on their behaviour and ‘imaginative’ anthropomorphism as the representation of imaginary and fictional characters as human-like. Representing gods as human-like or as having human-like characteristics such as personalities, emotions and interests is an example of what defined as imaginative anthropomorphism. Inferring that our cat is hungry because it sits in front of the fridge and meows or that a dog is soliciting play when it barks at us are instances of interpretative anthropomorphism. In this review, we focus mainly on interpretative anthropomorphism, that is, in the attribution of mental states to other animals. Mental states are understood here as brain events that are causally linked to observed behaviour.