Construct · 1 fields · 3 citations

uncanny valley: a standalone construct

One name. One construct. A landmark on the map.

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uncannyvalley1 CONSTRUCTUncanny valleyMORI · ALMOST-HUMAN DIP

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Human-robot interaction

The dip in affinity when a figure looks almost, but not quite, human

The roboticist Masahiro Mori coined the term in a 1970 essay in the Japanese magazine Energy, later given a standard English translation by MacDorman and Kageki in 2012. Mori proposed that as a robot or animated figure is made more humanlike, a viewer's affinity toward it rises, but only up to a point: when the figure is very nearly human yet imperfect, affinity drops sharply into a region of eeriness and unease that he called the valley, and it recovers only when the figure reaches full, indistinguishable human likeness. He also argued that movement deepens the effect, so a moving near-human figure feels more unsettling than a still one. The construct is distinctive as a proposed non-monotonic relationship, a curve that reverses direction rather than rising steadily, linking a figure's degree of human likeness to the affinity or discomfort it evokes, and it remains a central reference point for designing robots, avatars, and computer-generated characters.[1][2][3]

Unit
A proposed curve relating a figure's human likeness to the affinity or eeriness it evokes
Recovery means
Affinity is proposed to recover once a figure reaches full, indistinguishable human likeness
Measured by
Studied by presenting images, morphs, or robots that vary in human likeness and recording rated affinity, eeriness, or trust, then testing for the predicted dip

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Nearby constructs

affinity3 fields · 4 citationsjingle · one word, three constructsconstruct6 fields · 7 citationsjingle · one name, six constructsdegree1 fields · 1 citationsanchor · a standalone construct

References

  1. Mori, M. (1970). Bukimi no tani [The uncanny valley]. Energy, 7(4), 33–35.
  2. Mori, M., MacDorman, K. F., & Kageki, N. (2012). The uncanny valley [From the field]. IEEE Robotics & Automation Magazine, 19(2), 98–100. https://doi.org/10.1109/MRA.2012.2192811
  3. Mathur, M. B., & Reichling, D. B. (2016). Navigating a social world with robot partners: A quantitative cartography of the Uncanny Valley. Cognition, 146, 22–32. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2015.09.008

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