An inevitable fact: sooner or later robots will become a part of our daily lives. First, there were computers, then smart houses. Androids are now emerging – think eerie Sophia. But why are humans really afraid of androids?
The psychology behind it all
Modern science makes it possible to think of androids as parts of our lives in the near future. Yet, the more we try to make robots look like humans, the more they are rejected by society, but in general by our brains.
It was scientifically proven that objects similar to humans – similar, but not identical in terms of behavior – results in a general uneasiness among society.
Neuroscience studies showed this phenomenon is associated with the activity of mirror neurons in the brain. They are becoming active in response to human-like actions, like facial mimics, movements, and emotions.
In a study, the subjects were watching video recordings of robots, androids and humans with simultaneous fMRI recording. People and robots caused a positive reaction in study participants. Whereas while watching androids, human brains literally broke out. This was seen as dark spots in the areas of mirror neurons concentration, which is interpreted as a result of dissonance between reality and expectation.
We tend to think the more human-like an object is, the more attractive it seems to us. However, as the similarity grows, at some stage there exists a sudden inverse. This phenomenon is called the “uncanny valley” effect. It speaks for all things corpse-like, the unnatural. The same goes for robots. At some point, we start noticing strange details. The abnormality of human-like robots reminds us of death and that is the cause of perceiving androids as something strange and unrelated. Facial expressions catch our attention first. The more frozen the face looks, the worse people react to it. The same applies to “twitching” movements, unnatural speech (in particular, “wrong” voice height, slow speed of words, and lack of emotions).
Besides the popular idea of “uncanny valley”, psychologists proposed some other theories on the unconscious rejection of androids.
Threat perception theory assumes that androids are in the space between “robot” and “human” categories, and so they cause constant cognitive dissonance. The issue is humans do not know exactly what to expect, and so they don’t know how to react properly. The absence of an accurate answer causes fear.
In turn, the rejection effect is considered to be based on the inability to understand the feelings of such an object, which leads to a sensation of the unknown. Similar ideas can be traced back to the earlier history of psychology and explained through the concept: the way we perceive ourselves can result in a serious crack if a human-shaped creature does not react to us as we expect. In other words, we fear that the android itself is incapable of empathy; we perceive such a creation as an invalid.
Will the relationship between androids and humans always be an issue?
Yes, AI and androids are in the top 5 technology trends for 2020. However, it is worth noting that the phenomenon of “uncanny valley” has often been criticized by scientists. For example, the effect is lost if you add odd stylization (for example, make the character more cartoon-like).
In conclusion, it is evident that the effect is considered temporary – over several generations, everyone will get used to the presence of androids; they will not be the outcasts. The same might not be said about us at that point. Only time will tell.
