A review of empirical evidence on different uncanny valley hypotheses: support for perceptual mismatch as one road to the valley of eeriness
Source record
katsyri-2015-uv-review· 2015 · Frontiers in Psychology
Evidence tier: C (peer-reviewed-journal) · Verification: verified-abstract (compiler confidence: high)
Bottom line: The simplest valley hypothesis and the movement claim lacked consistent support; categorization ambiguity had too little research to judge; perceptual mismatch received good support; the valley appears only under specific conditions.
Citation
Jari Kätsyri, Klaus Förger, Meeri Mäkäräinen, Tapio Takala (2015). A review of empirical evidence on different uncanny valley hypotheses: support for perceptual mismatch as one road to the valley of eeriness. Frontiers in Psychology, 6, 390. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00390
Verification entry (identifiers, resolvers, claims with source locations): /data/citations.json#katsyri-2015-uv-review
Study design
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Design | Narrative review of empirical tests of uncanny valley hypotheses |
| Modality | review |
| Stimuli | n/a |
| Participants (N) | not recorded |
| N detail | review |
| Topics | uncanny-valley, mechanisms, review |
Results
| Metric | Value | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Simple human-likeness valley | no consistent support | |
| Movement modulates valley | no consistent support | |
| Categorization ambiguity | insufficient research | |
| Perceptual mismatch | good support |
Mechanism relevance
perceptual-mismatch
Limitations
- Narrative, not quantitative
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-abstract |
| Compiler confidence | high |
| Checked on | 2026-10-07 |
| Via | Semantic Scholar API abstract |
Values on this page have not all been checked against the full text. Confirm them against the primary source before high-stakes use.