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Full-Text Articles in Physical Sciences and Mathematics
The Public’S Perception Of Humanlike Robots: Online Social Commentary Reflects An Appearance-Based Uncanny Valley, A General Fear Of A “Technology Takeover”, And The Unabashed Sexualization Of Female-Gendered Robots, Megan K. Strait, Cynthia Aguillon, Virginia Contreras, Noemi Garcia
The Public’S Perception Of Humanlike Robots: Online Social Commentary Reflects An Appearance-Based Uncanny Valley, A General Fear Of A “Technology Takeover”, And The Unabashed Sexualization Of Female-Gendered Robots, Megan K. Strait, Cynthia Aguillon, Virginia Contreras, Noemi Garcia
Computer Science Faculty Publications and Presentations
Towards understanding the public’s perception of humanlike robots, we examined commentary on 24 YouTube videos depicting social robots ranging in human similarity – from Honda’s Asimo to Hiroshi Ishiguro’s Geminoids. In particular, we investigated how people have responded to the emergence of highly humanlike robots (e.g., Bina48) in contrast to those with more prototypically-“robotic” appearances (e.g., Asimo), coding the frequency at which the uncanny valley versus fears of replacement and/or a “technology takeover” arise in online discourse based on the robot’s appearance. Here we found that, consistent with Masahiro Mori’s theory of the uncanny valley, people’s commentary reflected an aversion …
Understanding The Uncanny: Both Atypical Features And Category Ambiguity Provoke Aversion Toward Humanlike Robots, Megan K. Strait, Victoria A. Floerke, Wendy Ju, Keith Maddox, Jessica D. Remedios, Malte F. Jung, Heather L. Urry
Understanding The Uncanny: Both Atypical Features And Category Ambiguity Provoke Aversion Toward Humanlike Robots, Megan K. Strait, Victoria A. Floerke, Wendy Ju, Keith Maddox, Jessica D. Remedios, Malte F. Jung, Heather L. Urry
Computer Science Faculty Publications and Presentations
Robots intended for social contexts are often designed with explicit humanlike attributes in order to facilitate their reception by (and communication with) people. However, observation of an “uncanny valley”—a phenomenon in which highly humanlike entities provoke aversion in human observers—has lead some to caution against this practice. Both of these contrasting perspectives on the anthropomorphic design of social robots find some support in empirical investigations to date. Yet, owing to outstanding empirical limitations and theoretical disputes, the uncanny valley and its implications for human-robot interaction remains poorly understood. We thus explored the relationship between human similarity and people's aversion toward …