- Researchers have determined the areas of the human brain responsible for our aversion to robots: the amygdala and the prefrontal cortex.
- The researchers hope these new insights will help create a future where humans and robots coexist peacefully.
Scientists have pinpointed the prefrontal cortex and amygdalae as the brain regions responsible for some people's aversion to robots. These areas, which go on red alert when we see humanoid robots, confirm the Uncanny Valley theory, which posits that "humans prefer anthropomorphic agents, but reject them if they become too human-like."
This could be due to our sense of preservation—after all, humans tend to be very "us vs. them," even with each other. So why would we react any differently to a perceived potential threat?
The Uncanny Valley Theory
To understand why humans have an aversion to robots, especially humanoid bots, we have to consider the Uncanny Valley theory. Created by roboticist Masahiro Mori, the theory proposes that humanoid robots make us uncomfortable because they trip "the same psychological alarms associated with a dead or unhealthy human."
Mori's theory, which is presented as a curve, further ventures that the human sense of familiarity moves up the incline of the curve as we interact with human-like machines. Basically, humans comfortably engage with robots up until they reach the drop-off point, or valley, along the curve. That's when robots become too human-like and begin to make us feel unsettled.
In a 2010 analysis, we wrote:
Over the course of four decades, the Uncanny Valley has graduated from a hotly debated theory, describing society's revulsion for robots that are simultaneously a little too human-like and not human enough, to what passes for fact among film critics, technology journalists and online commenters alike. It's another term for a specific sort of hubris, and a standing warning: Stick to Roombas and blue-skinned aliens and you'll be fine. But build a realistic feminine android or render a CG version of Tom Hanks in a train conductor's outfit, and the Uncanny Valley will swallow you whole.
Location, Location, Location
So where in the brain is the robotic fear epicenter? To answer this question, researchers used a functional MRI (fMRI), a noninvasive way to measure and map brain activity, that let them monitor the neural activity of volunteers who looked at a mix of photos showing robots and humans.
The volunteers ranked the likability of each picture, and then researchers asked them which photo subject they would choose to select a gift for a loved one. Each volunteer picked a human or humanoid bot, but no one chose the robots that looked too similar to human beings.
Using the fMRI scans, researchers deduced that the parts of our brains that make us skeezed out by eerily human-like robots are located in the amygdala and prefrontal cortex.
The prefrontal cortex (found at the front of the frontal lobe) is what makes us act against our primal nature and urges. This part of the brain is much more evolved in humans than it is in other animals, and houses many of our personality traits.
Meanwhile, the amygdalae (found on the left and right sides of human brains) are located in the anterior portion of the temporal lobe and let us feel and read emotions in others. You can thank your amygdalae for your phobias, as they're responsible for producing fear and the fight-or-flight reaction and response.
We already have surgical robots, house cleaning robots, and biomimicry-inspired bots. Clearly, there's endless potential when it comes to creating robots for the development of humankind—as long as we feel comfortable with them.
Researchers are hoping to use these study results to help create robots that don't fall into the Uncanny Valley in order to improve future relations between humans and bots. But it remains to be seen whether we'll reach a point where it's us vs. them, or us and them.
