The deviation-from-familiarity effect: Expertise increases uncanniness of deviating exemplars

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Psychology
• Perception Science
• Expertise Studies

Background:

• Humanlike entities deviating from typical appearance evoke uncanny feelings.
• Existing explanations focus on biological responses (mate selection, disease avoidance) or dehumanization.
• Alternative theories suggest deviation from highly familiar categories drives uncanniness.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate if expertise in a novel category influences responses to deviations.
• To compare expert and novice perceptions of abnormality, attractiveness, and uncanniness.
• To determine if uncanniness is a general response to category deviation or biologically specific.

Main Methods:

• Participants were trained on a novel category of visual stimuli ('greebles').
• Trained ('expert') and untrained ('novice') groups rated normal, averaged, and distorted greebles.
• Responses measured abnormality, attractiveness, and uncanniness.

Main Results:

• Distorted greebles were perceived as more uncanny than normal greebles, but only by trained participants.
• Distorted greebles elicited greater uncanniness in the trained group compared to the control group.
• Averaged greebles were not rated as more attractive than normal greebles in either group.

Conclusions:

• Uncanniness is triggered by deviations from learned, expert-defined stimulus categories.
• The findings challenge purely biological or innate explanations for uncanniness.
• Expertise plays a critical role in modulating the perception of eeriness in novel stimuli.