Uncanny valley facts for kids
The uncanny valley is a cool idea in psychology. It talks about how we feel about things that look almost human. Imagine a robot or a character in a video game. When it looks a little bit like a human, we might think it's cute or interesting. But then, if it gets *too* close to looking human, but not quite perfect, it can start to feel creepy or wrong. This strange feeling is what we call the uncanny valley.
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What is the Uncanny Valley?
The uncanny valley describes a strange feeling people get. It happens when something looks very much like a human, but not exactly. Think of a robot or a character in a movie.
How Our Feelings Change
When something is clearly not human, like a simple toy robot, we don't feel much emotion about it. As it starts to look more human, we might like it more. It seems friendly or cute.
But there's a point where it looks *almost* human, but something is just a little off. At this point, people often feel negative emotions. It might seem creepy, unsettling, or even scary.
The "Valley" in the Graph
If you look at a graph of these feelings, it shows a dip. This dip is the "valley." It's where our positive feelings drop sharply into negative ones. This happens right before something looks perfectly human.
Once something looks *very* close to a real human, our feelings usually become positive again. We might feel comfortable or even happy with it.
Who Created This Idea?
The idea of the uncanny valley was first talked about by a robotics professor named Masahiro Mori. He was from Japan.
When Was It Created?
Professor Mori came up with this theory in 1970. He wrote about it to explain how people react to robots that look like humans.
Why Do We Feel This Way?
Scientists and thinkers have different ideas about why the uncanny valley happens. It might be because our brains are very good at spotting things that are "off" about faces.
Spotting What's Not Right
If a robot looks almost human, but its eyes don't move quite right, or its skin looks too smooth, our brains notice. These small differences can make us feel uneasy. It's like our brains are saying, "This isn't quite right!"
Survival Instincts
Some people think it's linked to old survival instincts. If something looks human but acts strangely, it might have been a sign of danger in the past. This could make us feel cautious or scared.
Images for kids
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An empirically estimated uncanny valley for static robot face images
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In an experiment involving the human lookalike robot Repliee Q2 (pictured above), the uncovered robotic structure underneath Repliee, and the actual human who was the model for Repliee, the human lookalike triggered the highest level of mirror neuron activity.
See also
In Spanish: Valle inquietante para niños
