Mind projection fallacy

Biological Parallel

Male sticklebacks attack crude red-bellied decoys more aggressively than realistic models without the red trigger—they're responding to their internal release mechanism, not objective threat assessment. Parasitoid wasps inject eggs into hosts based on chemical cues that can be easily spoofed; they're slaves to their sensory filters. Perception is projection: organisms act on internal models shaped by ancestral environments, not external truth.