Domain-general and -specific individual difference predictors of an uncanny valley and uncanniness effects

Abstract

Near humanlike artificial entities can appear eerie or uncanny. This uncanny valley is here investigated by testing five individual difference measures as predictors of uncanniness throughout a variety of stimuli. Coulrophobia predicted uncanniness of distorted faces, bodies, and androids and clowns; disgust sensitivity predicted the uncanniness of some distorted faces; the anxiety facet of neuroticism predicted the uncanniness of some distorted faces, bodies, and voices; deviancy aversion and need for structure predicted uncanniness of distorted places and voices. Taken together, the results suggest that while uncanniness can be caused by multiple, domain-independent (e.g., deviancy aversion) and domain-specific (e.g., disease avoidance) mechanisms, the uncanniness of androids specifically may be related to a fear of clowns, potentially due to a dislike of exaggerated human proportions.