Reification
Etymology
From Latin res, "thing," plus a suffix meaning "to make" (facere). So to reify is almost literally to "thing-ify." That history captures the modern meaning exactly: taking something conceptual — "society," "intelligence," "success" — and mentally hardening it into a thing.
noun · /ray-uh-fih-KAY-shun/
Treating an abstraction as though it were a concrete, objectively existing thing.
What it names
The mental slip behind sentences like "the market decided" or "the algorithm wants" — we take a concept and quietly turn it into an actor with a will of its own.
Example
Talking about "the economy" as if it had moods is a small act of reification.
Related idea
Hypostatize is the close philosophical cousin; anthropomorphize is reification plus a personality.