Monkeys Fall Into ‘Uncanny Valley,’ Just Like Humans

[The Straight Story]

Monkeys Fall Into ‘Uncanny Valley,’ Just Like Humans

Monkeys are freaked out by almost-but-not-quite-real depictions of themselves. That tendency is well documented in humans, but has never before been seen in another species.

To test their preference, researchers showed macaque monkeys real pictures, digital caricatures and realistic reconstructions of other monkey faces. To the latter, the macaques repeatedly averted their eyes.

“The visual behavior of the monkeys falls into the uncanny valley just the same as human visual behavior,” wrote Princeton University evolutionary biologists Shawn Steckinfinger and Asif Ghazanfar in a paper published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The “uncanny valley” was identified in 1970 by Japanese roboticist Masahito Mori, who noticed that people presented with likenesses of increasing realism respond with increasing empathy, right up to the point where the likenesses are almost real. At that point, people are repulsed. The sudden dip in graphs describing their response gave the phenomenon its name.

Many explanations have been suggested for the uncanny valley, which has also been blamed for the box-office failure of movies like Beowulf and Final Fantasy. Perhaps almost-real humans look a bit too much like corpses for our comfort; perhaps they’re so real that they engage our brains’ mate-recognition or disease-avoidance systems, which promptly identify poor partners or sick individuals.



http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/10/uncanny-monkey/

[nolabear]

1. Freud refers to something similar

"the narcissism of near differences." Lord John Alderdyce, a psychoanalyst and peace negotiator (one of the primary ones in the Northern Ireland treaties) talks about it a great deal. The closer two parties are to agrement, the more dangerous the negotiations become as they become terribly uncomfortable with their similarity and their loss of distinct identity from one another. It seems we have a range in which we're comfortable, and too far and too near to ourselves both freak us out.

[Delphinus]

4. What about people

who are in relationship? Isn't one of the hallmarks of relationship the liking the same things? They look into each others eyes and see themselves - I would think that would make them closer.

[imdjh]

6. Probably the same reason twins aren't disturbing or repulsive. Know what causes sea sickness?

The mind knows real when it sees it.

You know what causes sea sickness? The mind knows that it's moving, but being below deck the landscape is fixed, so the mind perceives motion but the eyes tell it something else. This causes nausea. Going up on deck allows the eyes to see what the mind is feeling, and you get better.

[eShirl]

7. No, I've gotten sea sick up on deck, when the waves were rough.

That big rolling motion just gets to you after a while.

[Ilsa]

2. This concept needs to be taught to some marketing people.

I think I've been turned off by certain tv commercials (none specifically come to mind immediately) over this concept, but I didn't know what it was called. Very interesting.

[imdjh]

5. I don't like the Sim commercials either. I can't imagine that it's cheaper than using real people.

If that's the goal. And if it isn't, then why use Sims?

[imdjh]

3. Speaking about Beowulf- the technology was too intrusive (best I can come up with on short notice)

I watched Beowulf, unprepared for the technology. I can't recall what I was expecting before watching it, but my mind consciously and subconsciously spent a great deal of time figuring out what was real, and whether it was realistic looking animation, or distorted reality. Once I had decided it was animation, I spent too much time watching the technology for detail.

[SpookyCat]

9. Polar Express was the one that creeped me out, just from the commercials.

[SpookyCat]

8. Very interesting. Makes sense, really.

Thanks for posting this.