Categorization difficulty is associated with negative evaluation in the “uncanny valley” phenomenon
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Abstract Human observers often experience strongly negative impressions of human‐like objects falling within a particular range of visual similarity to real humans (the “uncanny valley” phenomenon). We hypothesized that negative impressions in the uncanny valley phenomenon are related to a difficulty in object categorization. We produced stimulus images by morphing two of each of real, stuffed, and cartoon human face images (Experiment 1). Observers were asked to categorize each of these images as either category and evaluated the likability of the image. The results revealed that the longest latency, the highest ambiguity in categorization, and the lowest likability score co‐occurred at consistent morphing percentages. Similar results were obtained even when we employed stimulus images that were created by morphing two of each of real, stuffed, and cartoon dog images (Experiment 2). However, the effect of categorization difficulty on evaluation was weak when two real human faces were morphed (Experiment 3). These results suggest that the difficulty in categorizing an object as either of two dissimilar categories is linked to negative evaluation regardless of whether the object is human‐related or not.
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In Yamada et al. (2013), the lower pleasantness ratings for intermediate morphs could have resulted from morphing artifacts rather than intermediate human-likeness level.
“Hence, it is possible that the lower pleasantness ratings for intermediate morphs could have resulted from morphing artifacts rather than intermediate human-likeness level.”
From A review of empirical evidence on different uncanny valley hypotheses: support for perceptual mismatch as one road to the valley of eeriness (2015) · cites this paper as Yamada et al., 2013
Yamada et al. (2013) was excluded from the total count because of plausible morphing artifacts.
“One of the studies in Table 4 (Yamada et al., 2013) was excluded from the total count because of plausible morphing artifacts.”
From A review of empirical evidence on different uncanny valley hypotheses: support for perceptual mismatch as one road to the valley of eeriness (2015) · cites this paper as Yamada et al., 2013
In Yamada et al. (2013), the slowest identification task response times and the most negative likability evaluations coincided, but these results were excluded because the likability evaluations could plausibly have been influenced by morphing artifacts.
“One image morphing study (Yamada et al., 2013) demonstrated that the slowest identification task response times and the most negative likability evaluations coincided with each other; however, these results were excluded because the likability evaluations could plausibly have been influenced by morphing artifacts (cf. Section Naïve and Morbidity Hypotheses).”
From A review of empirical evidence on different uncanny valley hypotheses: support for perceptual mismatch as one road to the valley of eeriness (2015) · cites this paper as Yamada et al., 2013
In Yamada et al. (2013), two participants reported spontaneously after the experiment that they evaluated the likability of the images based on the presence or absence of morphing noise.
“Consistently, two participants in this study had reported spontaneously after the experiment that “they [had] evaluated the likability of the images based on the presence or absence of morphing noise” (ibid., 4).”
From A review of empirical evidence on different uncanny valley hypotheses: support for perceptual mismatch as one road to the valley of eeriness (2015) · cites this paper as Yamada et al., 2013
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Diel, A., & Lewis, M. B. (2024) · Computers in Human Behavior · doi:10.1016/j.chb.2024.108254 · Cited by 12 · see citing works
Deviation from typical organic voices best explains a vocal uncanny valley
Diel, A., & Lewis, M. B. (2024) · Computers in Human Behavior Reports · doi:10.1016/j.chbr.2024.100430 · Cited by 14 · see citing works
The Effects of Talking-Head with Various Realism Levels on Students’ Emotions in Learning
Ali, A. Z. M., & Hamdan, M. N. (2016) · Journal of Educational Computing Research · doi:10.1177/0735633116672057 · Cited by 12 · see citing works
Investigating the uncanny valley for prosthetic hands
Poliakoff, E., O’Kane, S. H., Carefoot, O., Kyberd, P., & Gowen, E. (2018) · Prosthetics and Orthotics International · doi:10.1177/0309364617744083 · Cited by 12 · see citing works
Ratajczyk, D., Jukiewicz, M., & Łupkowski, P. (2019) · Bio-Algorithms and Med-Systems · doi:10.1515/bams-2019-0008 · Cited by 12 · see citing works
Blomsma, P., Skantze, G., & Swerts, M. G. J. (2022) · Frontiers in Artificial Intelligence · doi:10.3389/frai.2022.835298 · Cited by 11 · see citing works
Gender-Ambiguous Voices and Social Disfluency
Mohsenin, S., & Munz, K. P. (2024) · Psychological Science · doi:10.1177/09567976241238222 · Cited by 10 · see citing works
Self-face perception in 12-month-old infants: A study using the morphing technique
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The deviation-from-familiarity effect: Expertise increases uncanniness of deviating exemplars
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Attitude Towards Humanoid Robots and the Uncanny Valley Hypothesis
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The clone devaluation effect: A new uncanny phenomenon concerning facial identity
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Self-citationChildren's kinematic false memories
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Frequency of Switching Touching Mode Reflects Tactile Preference Judgment
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Animacy Perception: Lifelikeness that We Perceive from Artifacts
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Impact of stimulus uncanniness on speeded response
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Item-level implicit affective measures reveal the uncanny valley of robot faces
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Eerie edibles: Realism and food neophobia predict an uncanny valley in AI-generated food images
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- Authors
- YAMADA, Y., KAWABE, T., & IHAYA, K.
- Affiliations
- Yamaguchi University (JP)
- NTT (Japan) (JP)
- Kyushu University (JP)
- Corresponding author
- YAMADA, YUKI
- Venue
- Japanese Psychological Research
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Published
- 2012-09-03
- Volume
- 55
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 20-32
- ISSN
- 0021-5368 (ISSN-L)
- 1468-5884
- OpenAlex
- W2122384877
- Cited by
- 170
- References
- 28
- Citations by year
- 2026: 13 · 2025: 21 · 2024: 16 · 2023: 12 · 2022: 13 · 2021: 17 · 2020: 13 · 2019: 16 · 2018: 8 · 2017: 13 · 2016: 8 · 2015: 13 · 2014: 4 · 2013: 3
- FWCI
- 3.27
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- Japanese Psychological Research (publishedVersion)
- Institutional Repositories DataBase (IRDB) (submittedVersion)
- Kyushu University Institutional Repository (QIR) (Kyushu University) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Face Recognition and Perception
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Social Robot Interaction and HRI
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Aesthetic Perception and Analysis
- Keywords
- uncanny valley, negative evaluation, face perception, likeability, cartoon faces, stuffed animals, dogs
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