Showbiz Pizza, FNAF, & The Uncanny Valley | Mental History Podcast • Creations by Vi LLC

https://www.podbean.com/media/share/pb-q65ex-14d5472

Showbiz Pizza, FNAF, & The Uncanny Valley | Mental History Podcast

Animatronics are fascinating to me. While I don’t find them scary, a lot of people do. This actually makes sense psychologically – the uncanny valley refers to a hypothetical curve that graphically represents the relationship between a robot’s human likeness and the emotional response it evokes in humans. The curve suggests that as a robot or animatronic becomes more human-like in appearance and behavior, there is a point at which it becomes almost indistinguishable from a real human. However, just before reaching that point, there is a sudden drop or dip in the emotional response of humans. This dip is referred to as the “uncanny valley.”

In the uncanny valley, the robot or animatronic appears very close to being human, but there are subtle imperfections or anomalies that make it look eerie or unsettling to observers. These anomalies can include unnatural facial expressions, awkward movements, or features that are almost but not quite convincing in their resemblance to a human.

From Showbiz Pizza to Five Nights At Freddy’s, it’s time to talk animatronics.

This is Mental History, Thanks for listening.

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Sources (roughly in order of appearance)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animatronics

https://www.showbizpizza.com/history/index.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Five_Nights_at_Freddy%27s#:~:text=The%20idea%20for%20Five%20Nights,the%20game%20%22unintentionally%20terrifying%22.