Abstract
The uncanny valley effect (UVE) is a negative emotional response experienced when encountering entities that appear almost human. Research on the UVE typically investigates individual, or collections of, near human entities but may be prone to methodological circularity unless the properties that give rise to the emotional response are appropriately defined and quantified. In addition, many studies do not sufficiently control the variation in human likeness portrayed in stimulus images, meaning that the nature of stimuli that elicit the UVE is also not well defined or quantified. This article describes design criteria for UVE research to overcome the above problems by measuring three variables (human likeness, eeriness, and emotional response) and by using stimuli spanning the artificial to human continuum. These criteria allow results to be plotted and compared with the hypothesized uncanny valley curve and any effect observed can be quantified. The above criteria were applied to the methods used in a subset of existing UVE studies. Although many studies made use of some of the necessary measurements and controls, few used them all. The UVE is discussed in relation to this result and research methodology more broadly.
Highlights
The principles and test earlier were formulated as a design framework that could guide future research seeking to investigate the nature and causes of the uncanny valley effect (UVE)
Problems arising from methodological circularity can be avoided
The field of category boundaries and categorical perception presents particular challenges where distinct measurements of perceptions of human likeness as defined here may overlap with the human likeness dimension measured in discrimination tasks (Cheetham et al, 2013)
Summary
This area of enquiry has progressed from its origins in 1970 as an untested thought experiment to become an established field which is developing ways of investigating the uncanny valley effect (UVE) and the perception of near human entities (NHEs). There is the potential for problems to arise in even establishing the existence of the UVE due to the use of circular methodology. This arises because of a tendency to see an entity as eliciting a UVE because it appears eerie, coupled with a tendency for an entity to be perceived as eerie because it is of near-human appearance. The aim of the current article is to consider what methodological difficulties arise when studying the UVE, and how they might be overcome to produce research which is able to more objectively quantify and measure the effect
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