ABSTRACT
The research that I had conducted so far on the uncanny and aberrant facial expression in human-like virtual characters raised intriguing questions as to the possible psychological cause of the Uncanny Valley. e results of an experiment described in the last chapter showed that the uncanny was found to be strongest in realistic, human-like male characters with a lack of movement in the upper face including the eyelids, eyebrows and forehead when compared with male characters with full facial animation or humans (Tinwell et al., 2011). is eect was particularly strong for characters communicating fear and surprise since without upper facial movement the salience of these emotions was reduced. Although this work provided guidance as to how the design of characters’ facial expression may be improved to reduce uncanniness across dierent emotion types, the psychological drivers of the uncanny experience were still not fully explained. ese results led me to question whether aberrant facial expression in a character may trigger possible psychological processes that underpin the existence of the Uncanny Valley. Furthermore, what specic personality traits may be perceived in an uncanny character with a lack of emotional expressivity in the upper face that may evoke a negative response in the viewer?
