Familiar faces rendered strange: Why inconsistent realism drives characters into the uncanny valley.

ABSTRACT: Computer-modeled characters resembling real people sometimes elicit cold, eerie feelings. This effect, called the uncanny valley, has been attributed to uncertainty about whether the character is human or living or real. Uncertainty, however, neither explains why anthropomorphic characters lie in the uncanny valley nor their characteristic eeriness. We propose that realism inconsistency causes anthropomorphic characters to appear unfamiliar, despite their physical similarity to real people, owing to perceptual narrowing. We further propose that their unfamiliar, fake appearance elicits cold, eerie feelings, motivating threat avoidance. In our experiment, 365 participants categorized and rated objects, animals, and humans whose realism was manipulated along consistency-reduced and control t

SUBMITTER: Chattopadhyay D 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5024669 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature