Uncanny valley: why we find human-like robots and dolls so creepy | Stephanie Lay

It seems obvious that the more human robots are, the more familiar we find them. But it’s only true up to a point – then we find them disturbing

The “uncanny valley” is a characteristic dip in emotional response that happens when we encounter an entity that is almost, but not quite, human. It was first hypothesised in 1970 by the Japanese roboticist Masahiro Mori, who identified that as robots became more human-like, people would find them to be more acceptable and appealing than their mechanical counterparts. But this only held true to up a point. When they were close to, but not quite, human, people developed a sense of unease and discomfort. If human-likeness increased beyond this point, and they became very close to human, the emotional response returned to being positive. It is this distinctive dip in the relationship between human-likeness and emotional response that is called the uncanny valley.

Related: Artificial intelligence: ‘Homo sapiens will be split into a handful of gods and the rest of us’

A compelling area for research is that it occurs because of mismatches between the robot’s appearance and/or behaviour

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via Uncanny valley: why we find human-like robots and dolls so creepy | Stephanie Lay