Who coined the term “uncanny valley” for human-like robots?

Masahiro Mori coined the term “uncanny valley” for human-like robots.

Mori, a Japanese robotics professor, introduced the idea in a 1970 essay titled “Bukimi no Tani,” commonly translated as “The Uncanny Valley.” He proposed that people tend to feel more comfortable with machines as they become more human-like, until a near-human appearance creates a sharp drop in emotional acceptance.

The effect may involve humanoid robots, prosthetic limbs, animated characters, and computer-generated faces. Small irregularities in movement, expression, or skin-like appearance can make an object seem unsettling rather than familiar. Mori’s original discussion included a graph showing affinity rising and then falling before increasing again for a real human.

The term is often treated as a universal law, but research has found that reactions depend on culture, context, realism, motion, and individual experience. Mori’s concept remains influential in robot design and human-computer interaction.