Monkey visual behavior falls into the uncanny valley
Source record
steckenfinger-ghazanfar-2009· 2009 · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS)
Evidence tier: B (peer-reviewed-journal) · Verification: unverified (compiler confidence: high)
Bottom line: Macaques looked less at realistic synthetic faces than at real or unrealistic ones—an uncanny-valley analogue in another species.
Citation
Shawn A. Steckenfinger, Asif A. Ghazanfar (2009). Monkey visual behavior falls into the uncanny valley. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), 106(43), 18362-18366. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0910063106
Verification entry (identifiers, resolvers, claims with source locations): /data/citations.json#steckenfinger-ghazanfar-2009
Study design
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Design | Looking-time preference in macaque monkeys for real, realistic-synthetic, and unrealistic-synthetic monkey faces |
| Modality | image-face, non-human-primate |
| Stimuli | Real monkey faces; realistic and unrealistic synthetic monkey faces |
| Participants (N) | 5 |
| N detail | macaques (approximate) |
| Topics | uncanny-valley, evolution |
Results
| Metric | Value | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Looking time | realistic-synthetic < real and < unrealistic |
Mechanism relevance
evolved-perceptual-basis
Limitations
- Very small N
- Looking time is an indirect aversion proxy
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 | unverified |
| Compiler confidence | high |
| Checked on | — |
| Via | 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.