He Looks Like You

While it sounds mundane, the uncanny valley feeling can be described as the negative emotional reaction towards things that aren’t human but almost look human. It’s eerie and unsettling and can easily disturb someone. Maybe you saw a robot with the face of a woman but you know that it doesn’t quite look right. It’s pretending to be a human but you know it's not; maybe you looked into your open cupboard at night and thought you saw something human. No, you’re just dreaming, close the door. Stop lying. 

Maybe I’m not lying. What if the person I saw outside my house didn’t look human? I know he technically had the right features but not in the right way. He’s looking at me. 

There is a fair amount of research on the uncanny valley but it is mainly on the perceived likelihood of robots. It has been seen in various aspects of media as people have pointed out the characters in Polar Express (Zemeckis, 2004) and the humanoid ‘King’ mascot in the Burger King advertisement in 2011 (Daily Mail Reporter, 2011). Apparently this phenomenon may also be responsible for coulrophobia- the fear of clowns (Moore, 2012) and pediophobia- the fear of dolls (Macy & Schrader, 2008). I thought it was the watchman standing out but I know it's not. Now I’ve learned to identify them. They’re pretending to be human and they know where I live. I don’t feel safe. 

Researchers have tried validating the Uncanny Valley hypothesis which states that as a robot increasingly resembles a human, familiarity increases to a point after which it drops to a negative value and leads to repulsion. 

The Dehumanisation Hypothesis is “perceiving a person or group as lacking humanness- The attributes that define what it is to be human” (Haslam & Loughnan, 2014). The two forms are animalistic and mechanistic. The former indicates a lack of uniqueness such that one is considered animalistic, and lacking in self-control and intelligence, whereas the latter would be considered to be lacking in warmth and emotions. A large amount of literature demonstrates the ability to rapidly detect faces, regardless of whether they are dolls, humans or schematic line drawings. 

According to Cognitive processing theories like the ‘Mind Perception hypothesis’, humans and non-humans differ in 2 areas: agency and experience. ‘Human replicas’ elicit this eerie feeling as they aren’t realistic enough to be indistinguishable from humans but they seem realistic enough for us to attribute subjective experiences to these entities which cannot feel or sense. This theory belongs to the broader topic of ‘anthropomorphism’ which is the “attribution of human characteristics or traits to non-human agents” (Epley, Waytz & Cacioppo, 2007). People think I’m crazy. They say I’m seeing things. I’ve installed locks on the windows. Believe me, I’m not seeing ‘things’. I’m seeing real entities and they look just like me. 

The Violation of Expectation hypothesis states that replicas may cause uneasy feelings as they build up an expectation for a human but then don’t match that expectation. Research showed that those with incongruent features (human face with a robotic or synthetic voice) caused eerier sensation than those with congruent features. (Mitchell et al., 2011). Mismatched facial features led to the strongest unpleasant feelings compared to no mismatch in features.(Seyama and Nagayama, 2007). It could be due to the fact that we process these entities as humans. Evidence does support a link between the hypothesis and the uncanny valley feeling but it is best explained only partially. I don’t think I have much time. Recently more have been showing up near my house. They stay away, they keep their distance but there are more. They seemed to have formed a ring around my house. I’m packing up and leaving, I do not want to be living here the day they decide to close in. Pray for me.

The Categorical Uncertainty Hypothesis states that the concept of ‘uncanny’ Is linked with a “lack of orientation”. This occurs when people incorporate new information with mistrust, unease or hostility. (Ernst, Jentsch, 1906/1997). Ramey (2006) suggested that uncertainty could arise at any category Boundary. It was not limited to androids. A study conducted by Yamada et al., 2013 tested if categorisation uncertainty could be responsible for the uncanny valley feeling. In the 1st experiment, They found a negative correlation between the response latencies and likeability scores thus verifying the hypothesis. In the 2nd experiment, it was seen that the replication supported Ramey (2006) stating that the uncanny valley is related to the uncertainty of categorization occurring at boundaries. 

I believe I have run out of time. They’ve gotten too close. Nobody believes me when I describe them. I have accepted my fate, nobody came to get me. I saw one outside my bedroom. They’re inside my house. There’s no way to escape. 

About the author: Aameya Kapoor

Member of the Psycreative Column

Third year, B.Sc. Applied Psychology student, SDSOS, NMIMS

Aameya kapoor is an avid reader and writer who enjoys researching about any topic under the sun. She constantly watches analogue horror even though she knows that she won't be able to sleep that night. A word of advice from her- singing Yeh Jawani hai Diwani by Kishore Kumar will distract you enough to ignore that lingering feeling of dread when you’re alone in the dark. When she’s not scaring herself to death by watching horror shows that she shouldn’t even be watching at night, you may find her engrossed in a sketch or painting that she may not ever finish. (She says that she’ll get back to it but it will never see the light of day). 

References 

Wang, S., Lilienfeld, S. O., & Rochat, P. (2015). The Uncanny Valley: existence and explanations. Review of General Psychology, 19(4), 393–407. https://doi.org/10.1037/gpr0000056