PRSONAS™ Blog

For those of you that have been following us for a while, you have no doubt seen several of us mention something called “The Uncanny Valley”. We recently received an email from a client that asked the basic question “What is the Uncanny Valley” and why is it important to you? So, let’s dig in and discuss what the term means and why it has been such a challenge in the world of digital personalities.

First, let’s start with the text book definition. In aesthetics, the uncanny valley is a relationship between the degree of an object's resemblance to a human being and the emotional response to such an object. The concept of the uncanny valley suggests humanoid objects which appear almost, but not exactly, like real human beings elicit uncanny, or strangely familiar, feelings of eeriness and revulsion in observers. Valley denotes a dip in the human observer's affinity for the replica, a relation that otherwise increases with the replica's human likeness.

OK, so that definition might not make the meaning so clear, so let’s sum it up this way: It makes characters appear “creepy”! 😉

Now, let’s parse this a bit. Basically, humans like to interact with humans. When we interact with something that is appearing to be a human, we respond emotionally to the subtleties that are not present. For example, when a person walks up to a photo-realistic digital avatar, their brain is expecting to interact with a human. However, unbeknownst to the “user” that avatar is missing a few things that would identify it as a human, such as the subtle rise and fall of the chest while breathing, or the quick dart of the eyes, or the motion of the throat as a person naturally, but unconsciously swallows. None of these are details that most people detect overtly. Instead, the lack of these little cues registers unconsciously in our brains and creates a kind of revulsion or feelings of “creepiness”. This happens because of the differential between what we expect to see and what we are perceiving.