uncanny valley

English

Etymology

Calque of Japanese 不気味の谷 (ぶきみのたに, bukimi no tani), from Middle Chinese 不 (pjuw, “not”) + 氣味 (kì-mjɨ̀j, “sense, sentiment”, literally “taste and smell”) + Japanese の (no, noun modifier particle) + 谷 (たに, tani, “valley”). First used in 1970 by roboticist Masahiro Mori.

Noun

uncanny valley

1. (psychology) A range of appearances, mannerisms, or behaviors of a humanoid figure that are subtly different from a human and thereby cause feelings of discomfort, such as fear or revulsion.
   • 1970, Masahiro Mori, “The Uncanny Valley”, in Energy, volume 7, number 4, pages 33–35:

     So in this case, the appearance is quite human like, but the familiarity is negative. This is the uncanny valley.

   • 2006, Sebastiano Bagnara, Gillian Crampton Smith, Theories and Practice in Interaction Design:

     However, when the robot is so similar that it may be momentarily mistaken for real, the transition has a local minimum characterized by a sudden decrease of familiarity, the "uncanny valley"—a dip of frustration due to unmet expectations.

   • 2007, Jonathon Keats, Control + Alt + Delete: A Dictionary of Cyberslang:

     Almost human in appearance, yet not quite, the characters in 3-D computer animations are more disturbing than overt caricatures. The realm these creatures occupy is called the uncanny valley […] .

   • 2015, Kathleen Richardson, An Anthropology of Robots and AI‎^[1], Routledge, →ISBN:

     More unusual is perhaps the appropriation of a psychoanalytical theory to robotics–which is, in effect, what the uncanny valley aims to do. Mori's own descriptions of the uncanny follow a similar pattern to Freud's, where he indicates the kinds of events, states, processes or objects that might provoke the uncanny valley, particularly the theme of the dead.

   • 2016 September 22, Kyle Chayka, “Instagram's Creepy New Ads Look Like Posts From Your Friends”, in The Atlantic‎^[2]:

     There’s an uncanny valley effect occurring: Your friends look more like brands, and brands look more like your friends, so it’s increasingly hard to tell which is which. And that’s exactly what businesses want.

Translations

subtle differences from human behavior that may cause negative reactions

• Arabic: وَادٍ غَرِيب (ar) m (wādin ḡarīb)
• Catalan: vall inquietant m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 恐怖谷 (kǒngbùgǔ)

• Finnish: outo laakso
• French: vallée dérangeante (fr) f, vallée de l’étrange (fr) f
• German: Uncanny Valley n, Akzeptanzlücke f
• Hebrew: עמק המוזרות m (émek hamuzárut)
• Italian: valle perturbante f
• Japanese: 不気味の谷 (ぶきみのたに, bukimi no tani)
• Korean: 불쾌한 골짜기 (bulkwaehan goljjagi)
• Persian: دره وهمی m (dare wahmiyy)
• Polish: dolina niesamowitości f
• Portuguese: vale da estranheza m
• Russian: злове́щая доли́на f (zlovéščaja dolína)
• Spanish: valle inquietante m, valle espeluznante m, valle escalofriante
• Swedish: kusliga dalen, kuslighetens dal c
• Turkish: tekinsiz vadi
• Ukrainian: моторошна долина f (motorošna dolyna)

Further reading

• uncanny valley on Wikipedia.Wikipedia