Applying an implicit approach to research on the uncanny feeling

Contradictory findings with regard to the nonlinear relation between human likeness and affective reactions have characterized psychological research on the uncanny valley hypothesis (Mori 1970/2005). In the present study we explored the phenomenology of the uncanny feeling (UF) by assessing implicit associations between uncanny stimuli (by android faces) and two emotional responses previously associated with the uncanny: fear and disgust. Further, we tested whether perception of uncanny stimuli would facilitate cognitions of deviant (“sick”) morality and mental illness, as suggested by previous literature. Across five Single-Target Implicit Association Tests we found support only for a slight association of the UF with moral disgust (relative to fear). We found no evidence of an implicit link between the UF and fear or general disgust, nor did the UF implicitly facilitate cognitions of psychopathy.

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