@pawsplay Daniel Dennett (RIP) calls this "the intentional stance" & he wrote an entire book about it. We take the intentional stance when we ascribe intent & purpose to the behavior of something outside ourselves (Dennett himself takes things a step further & believes that we also apply to ourselves, but that's another story).

"The Mind's Eye" that he edited with Hofstadter contains a couple of chapters that touch deeply on this idea, including a mechanical tortoise that wails when damaged.