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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Feb 11, 2026

Perceptual and Category Processing of the Uncanny Valley Hypothesis' Dimension of Human Likeness: Some Methodological Issues
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Uncanny valley as a window into predictive processing in the social brain.

Burcu A Urgen1, Marta Kutas2, Ayse P Saygin2

  • 1Department of Cognitive Science, UC San Diego, 9500 Gilman Drive, 92093 La Jolla, CA, United States; Department of Medicine and Surgery, University of Parma, Via Volturno 39, 43125 Parma, Italy.

Neuropsychologia
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Summary

The uncanny valley, a negative reaction to nearly human agents, may stem from violated predictions. This study used EEG to show that incongruent appearance and motion in realistic robots trigger prediction errors, explaining the uncanny effect.

Keywords:
Action perceptionN400Predictive processingSocial neuroscienceUncanny valley

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Area of Science:

  • Cognitive Neuroscience
  • Human-Robot Interaction
  • Social Psychology

Background:

  • The uncanny valley describes negative human reactions to artificial agents that closely resemble humans but are not quite indistinguishable.
  • Existing theories suggest that prediction violation underlies the uncanny valley phenomenon.
  • Empirical evidence directly testing this prediction violation hypothesis has been lacking.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To empirically investigate whether prediction violation explains the uncanny valley effect.
  • To examine brain responses associated with encountering artificial agents with varying degrees of realism.
  • To determine if incongruence between appearance and motion in realistic robots elicits specific neural markers of prediction error.

Main Methods:

  • Event-related brain potential (ERP) recordings using electroencephalography (EEG) were employed.
  • Human participants viewed images and videos of three agent types: a real human, a mechanical robot, and a realistic robot.
  • Agents were presented with congruent or incongruent appearance and motion pairings.

Main Results:

  • The realistic robot with incongruent appearance and motion elicited an N400 effect, indicative of prediction violation.
  • Agents with congruent appearance and motion (real human, mechanical robot) did not elicit this effect.
  • The findings support the hypothesis that violated predictions contribute to the uncanny valley response.

Conclusions:

  • The uncanny valley phenomenon can be explained by the violation of predictions about human norms when encountering highly realistic artificial agents.
  • Perception of other individuals, including artificial ones, relies on predictive mechanisms.
  • This research highlights the predictive nature of neural mechanisms involved in social perception.