The Ick Factor: Pathogen Avoidance Behavior As a Moderator of the Uncanny Valley Effect

This study will examine if individuals’ pathogen avoidance behaviors moderate the degree to which they experience discomfort upon viewing an imperfect humanoid agent. Individuals will rate the uncanniness of stimulus videos of humans, mechanistic robots, and humanoid robots that will be analyzed with the individual’s pathogen avoidance behavior scores.