Volume 90, Issue 4 p. 1202-1214
Empirical Article

Creepiness Creeps In: Uncanny Valley Feelings Are Acquired in Childhood

Kimberly A. Brink

Corresponding Author

Kimberly A. Brink

University of Michigan

Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Kimberly A. Brink, Department of Psychology, University of Michigan, 530 Church St, Ann Arbor, MI 48109. Electronic mail may be sent to [email protected].Search for more papers by this author
Kurt Gray

Kurt Gray

University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

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Henry M. Wellman

Henry M. Wellman

University of Michigan

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First published: 13 December 2017
Citations: 50
The research was funded by a grant from the Varieties of Understanding Project at Fordham University and the John Templeton Foundation to Henry M. Wellman, and a NICHD traineeship to Kimberly A. Brink. The research was conducted in the Living Laboratory® at the University of Michigan Museum of Natural History.

Abstract

The uncanny valley posits that very human-like robots are unsettling, a phenomenon amply demonstrated in adults but unexplored in children. Two hundred forty 3- to 18-year-olds viewed one of two robots (machine-like or very human-like) and rated their feelings toward (e.g., “Does the robot make you feel weird or happy?”) and perceptions of the robot's capacities (e.g., “Does the robot think for itself?”). Like adults, children older than 9 judged the human-like robot as creepier than the machine-like robot—but younger children did not. Children's perceptions of robots’ mental capacities predicted uncanny feelings: children judge robots to be creepy depending on whether they have human-like minds. The uncanny valley is therefore acquired over development and relates to changing conceptions about robot minds.