The Uncanny Valley of Virtual Reality in Marketing

The uncanny valley was a hypothesis proposed by Masahiro Mori in 1970 to describe a phenomenon that occurs to the affinity levels of robots as they approach more realistic levels of human-likeness. Debate among scholars has formed over the last decade as to whether the uncanny valley exists, and if it does, if Mori’s original hypothesis attributes the appropriate factors to the underlying cause of the phenomenon. Several studies support the contention that it is not the realistic appearance of the robots that causes their uncanniness, but rather a mismatch in the realism of various characteristics. The uncanny valley and the hypothesis that it occurs due to a mismatch in attributes can not only be suitable to describe robots, but computer generated (CG) characters and motion controls for virtual reality as well. Overall, it is important for marketers to understand the implications of the uncanny valley as it appears in virtual reality, an upcoming technology and tool being utilized more and more for branding and advertising