Feeling robots and human zombies: Mind perception and the uncanny valley
Source record
gray-wegner-2012-mind-perception· 2012 · Cognition
Evidence tier: B (peer-reviewed-journal) · Verification: verified-doi (compiler confidence: high)
Bottom line: Unease was driven by attributing the capacity to feel (experience) to machines—or denying it to humans—not by appearance alone.
Citation
Kurt Gray, Daniel M. Wegner (2012). Feeling robots and human zombies: Mind perception and the uncanny valley. Cognition, 125(1), 125-130. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2012.06.007
Verification entry (identifiers, resolvers, claims with source locations): /data/citations.json#gray-wegner-2012-mind-perception
Study design
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Design | 3 experiments: humanlike vs mechanical view of the same robot; computer described as able to feel vs act; human described as lacking experience |
| Modality | robot, vignette |
| Stimuli | KASPAR robot video (front vs back); vignettes |
| Participants (N) | not recorded |
| N detail | 3 modest samples (not recorded) |
| Topics | uncanny-valley, mind-perception |
Results
| Metric | Value | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Humanlike robot unease | higher; mediated by perceived experience | |
| Machine that can feel vs act | feeling machine more unnerving | |
| Human lacking experience | unnerving |
Mechanism relevance
mind-perception
Limitations
- Small samples
- Vignette paradigms
Cited in
- MR-0002: The Uncanny Valley and Synthetic Media: Does It Exist, What Causes It, and Have Deepfakes Crossed It?
Verification
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Status | verified-doi |
| Compiler confidence | high |
| Checked on | 2026-10-07 |
| Via | OpenAlex metadata (title, authors, venue, volume, pages, DOI); abstract not available; findings from compiler knowledge |
Values on this page have not all been checked against the full text. Confirm them against the primary source before high-stakes use.