Why are many people freaked out by things that look nearly but are definitely not human? Also known as the uncanny valley.
In: 13
Because our brains are pattern recognition machines. In the uncanny Valley the brain is on the fence on if it recognizes the face as human, so both “Yes I recognize that very familiar thing” and “This is something new” get triggered. The Brain gets confused having both signals at the same time and without resolution this feeling is uncomfortable. When it’s SO close, even watching more video still doesn’t resolve. Like one second might look real and then the next second doesn’t.
The important thing to note is that the uncanny valley is a hypothesis. There is some evidence that it might just be a modern cultural phenomenon or a collection of unrelated phenomena that is incorrectly classed together.
Also because it’s just a hypothesis we don’t know what causes it or exactly why it happens. The top leading theories are that we react strongly to things that are “slightly” off because it helps us avoid disease or because it “threatens our idea of human identity”.
I think it’s important to say that because the uncanny valley is a relatively new phenomenon, there still has to be done more research regarding the effects on our brain. However, one theory as to why people are freaked out by things in the uncanny valley is that our brains are wired to quickly identify other humans and interpret their actions and intentions. When we encounter something that looks human-like but isn’t quite right, our brains can’t process it properly, which can lead to feelings of discomfort and unease. Another theory is that our brains are evolved to recognize and avoid potential threats, and something that looks almost human but isn’t quite right may be interpreted as a potential threat.
I once read it might have to do with a self preservation instinct. We are meant to recognize lifeless bodies with diseases or death. This causes a natural aversion, the same way most people have with snakes or other dangerous things.
So when we see a machine with a lifeless face, it triggers a natural avoidance to stay away.
I’ve always loved the scary little hypothesis that we evolved it because of a specific past threat of “something” posing and pretending to be humans. Aliens…they’re usually talking about aliens. Fun to think about for a moment but horrifying to think about for longer than that.
Highly unlikely but nobody can say for certain it isn’t true 😉
Our brain is not just good at recognizing patterns, but are *especially* good at recognizing human faces to the point there’s even a specialized little part of the brain for it.
The Uncanny Valley effect happens when the general pattern recognizing part recognizes a human face, but the human face recognizing part doesn’t. Our brain basically is sending the “It’s a human,” and “It’s not a human,” signal at the same time which gets uncomfortable.
I think and have no proof that it goes back to when other homo species were prevalent. I am not a scientist, I just always thought we would avoid other hominids for self preservation. I like the dead, dying, and diseased people are best to be avoided hypothesis as well.
[v sauce did a video on this](https://youtu.be/PEikGKDVsCc) check it out if you haven’t already
Most of the answers don’t explain why is this an unpleasant feeling…
Ok, the pattern recognition mechanism gets short-circuited by why does this lead to an unpleasant feeling?
My uneducated guess is that this is due to evolutionary advantage of being wary of nearly but not completely familiar stuff.
It’s an evolutionary remnant which evolved in prehistory to make us fear people who looked human; but actually weren’t….
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