Uncanny Valley

The "Uncanny Valley" theory is a robotics-related hypothesis regarding the emotional response of humans to robots and other non-human entities. It was introduced by Japanese roboticist Masashiro Mori in 1970.

Mori's hypothesis states that the more a robot has humanoid appearance or movements, the greater the emotional response of a human being towards it.

This response becomes increasingly greater until the human being deems the robot too perfect, and upon noticing its flaws, what was attraction turns into repulsion, or even fear.

However, if the appearance and movements become more and more similar to a human being without any discernible differences, then the approach becomes like that between a human being and a human being.

This area of repulsive emotional response between a robot with human appearance and movements and a human being is called the Uncanny Valley and is highlighted in the figure.
[image from Wikipedia]

uncanny valley

The theory is very interesting and is indeed the basis of novels and horror films, but it can now also be verified in real life. For example, monkeys are liked the more they resemble humans and the more they exhibit human-like behavior. But this only holds true if they are visibly ape-like. Robots that are too similar to humans, however, are scary.

However, if a certain threshold of similarity is exceeded, the opposite reactions occur. Recently, in Australia and the US, there have been reports of police officers breaking windows to save babies abandoned for hours in cars. These babies later turned out to be lifelike dolls, as in the case of those made by Vynette Cernik.

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