Why zombies, robots and clowns freak us out

[linttrap]

San Diego (CNN) -- What do zombies and androids have in common? They're almost human, but not quite. That disconnect is creepy, in a way that scientists are searching to understand.

The uncanny valley is the idea that as a robot's appearance becomes more and more humanlike, we don't always respond to it more positively. Rather, there's a point on the scale between robot and human where we are repulsed. If it's mechanical but not entirely human, a robot seems disturbing.

Why would that be? It would make sense that as human likeness increases in a robot, so would our comfort with it. But on a graph showing that relationship, there's a "valley" where this familiarity dips down into creepiness, and then comes back up again with more human characteristics.

Much longer article can be read here:

http://www.cnn.com/2012/07/11/health...ots/index.html

[Sysiphus]

Clowns scared the ?@*! out of me when I was little. They still do. The other thing that got to me was humans in animal costumes, like bears. The Easter bunny was especially frightening.

[Kassy]

They also mention Botox faces & i've seen a couple i found downright scary.

~ Aside i guess this was put in the Flu Clinic by accident. I'll put it in Health & medicine. Could be in science too.

[Oric]

When it looks similar to human, we expect "human" reactions, when that does not happen we suddenly feel there is going to be unecpected behaviour, like a mad person.

[linttrap]

I agree with some aspects of the explanations below. We all carry a template in our brain of what a human face/body/movement should look like, and when it is just a little off, the brain has to involve many more areas to figure out why it isn't quite right.

It is no longer just a simple "match what I see to what I have stored" event. If what you see is very different than your template, that is an easy Not The Same conclusion, made in nanoseconds. Likewise, the conclusion The Same is made in nanoseconds.

If it is just a little off, all sorts of reasoning processes have to get involved, which lengthens the time to a conclusion and causes an emotional reaction of "back off until we identify this!"

The researchers' possible explanations for the phenomenon:

They hypothesized that, at least in part, the effect might result from a violation of the brain's predictions. When we anticipate one thing but see another, we get an error, and that error makes us shy away from the thing we're viewing.

"Your brain's gonna be like, 'Hey, wait a minute, you told me this was a human, and now this area told me that this is not moving like a human. So, I have to really compute that,' " she said. "That's what we think the uncanny valley might be partially caused by, and we have seen some brain activity that looks like that."
***************************
In a roboticist's view, the uncanny valley effect has to do with a mismatch in features of a single animation or robot, with some parts appearing much more humanlike than others. For instance, when a very human-looking head is placed on an obviously mechanical body, that can be creepy. So can a human face with robotic eyes.

"When there are elements that are both human or nonhuman, this mismatch can produce an eerie sensation in the brain," MacDorman said. "It's when different parts of the brain are coming to different conclusions at the same time."
*************************
From an evolutionary perspective, humans have developed an aversion to sickness, and a creepy-looking almost-human might tap into our internal system that warns us against sources of disease. In relation, we evolved to choose mates who are healthy, and weird robots may set off the same warning bells that told our ancestors to stay away from unfit sexual partners.

[Kassy]

We humans are social animals. We hang around with eachother but we react in different ways to eachother at different times. We probably look at intent all the time in the other humans like monkeys in groups watch eachothers signals.

The problem with zombies, robots and clowns is that they give a steady signal or no signal for our perception.

Is that zombie happy or sad? We can't tell from body language or facial expression so after a while our brain tells us to get nervous.

This is ok because zombies want to eat you so leg it out of there.

The clowns have that fixed expression too. OK in a routine of a couple of minutes where it fits but unnerving if they follow you around.

It's like people with facemasks following you around but their masks are the fixed facial expressions.

[Sysiphus]

Originally Posted by Kassy

The clowns have that fixed expression too. OK in a routine of a couple of minutes where it fits but unnerving if they follow you around.

As Lon Chaney said, "There is nothing funny about a clown in the moonlight."

[Feather]

I guess manniquins(?) would be in the same catagory as robots. My youngest is terrified of them. Even as an adult he will go way out and around them.

[Samen]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...&v=2iZ0WuNvHr8

[Feather]

Reminds me of the Transformers.

[Feather]

Oops, it posted twice.