The Uncanny Valley

Imagine you’re walking down a sidewalk in the city late at night. You come upon an area where the street light is flickering. You see someone standing by the street light with their back turned to you. You think nothing of it at first. It’s the city after all. Someone’s always around. As you get closer, you start to get a little nervous. It’s hard to see the person clearly with the flickering light. The person looks like a tall man. That’s not out of the norm, but his features don’t seem right. His arms and legs seem longer than they should be. He’s unusually thin and he’s hunched over in an unnatural way. You slow to a stop. Something about the man terrifies you, but you can’t quite explain it. Then the light flashes on long enough for you to get a good look at his face. Just like his body, it looks human, but not quite. All of his features are just wrong. His eyes are yellowish, his nose is too small, and his smile is too wide. How would you feel if you stumbled onto this man?

You’d probably be terrified. That feeling of dread you felt when you first noticed that there was something off about the man - that’s called the uncanny valley. The uncanny valley is a psychological phenomenon that has become a more prominent topic of discussion because of the rise of robotics. A roboticist named Masahiro Mori first covered the topic in a 1970 paper where he theorized on the effect that robots would have on people as they started to look more and more human.

He depicted his take on the concept in the figure below.

The gist of it is that as the form of an object like a robot or other figure becomes more and more humanlike, people’s affinity with it increases until it hits a point where it looks just like a person but vaguely different in some way. At that point people’s affinity will drop sharply and turn into revulsion or fear. The effect is even more pronounced when motion is taken into account. Horror movies have played around with this concept for years. See Silent Hill, Us, or The Ring for examples.

No one knows exactly why this phenomenon exists. Some scientists theorize that it has been ingrained in us since we supposedly shared the earth with other “humans” like the Neanderthals and Homo Erectus. At that time, we had to be wary of people that looked sort of like us but not quite. The Uncanny Valley might have developed out of our need for self-preservation. That’s a theory anyway.

It might sound odd, but maybe we Christians need a spiritual Uncanny Valley. The Bible tells us that when we come to belief we become different.

Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit. - 2 Corinthians 3:17-18

We should look different from nonbelievers, and that shouldn’t be scary. That’s part of the process. We shouldn’t be repulsed by those that don’t believe and look very different from us from a spiritual standpoint. It’s our job to love them and spread the Gospel to them. It’s the people that claim to be believers but don’t live the life that should worry us. The ones that look like believers - but not quite.

Believers that are strong in their faith should be able to handle the lack of faith from nonbelievers. Nonbelief shouldn’t represent any real danger. However, those that claim to believe but represent something other than what the Bible lays out for Christ’s followers can be a threat.

This is nothing new. Consider what Jesus said about the Pharisees.

Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You travel over land and sea to win a single convert, and when you have succeeded, you make them twice as much a child of hell as you are. - Matthew 23:15

In the larger passage, Jesus dressed down the Pharisees. He identified all their flaws and wrongdoings, and, in the above verse, he concluded that the Pharisees were setting their followers on a path to Hell. The Pharisees were supposed to be the spiritual leaders. They were supposed to be the model for what God’s people should look like. Instead, as Jesus pointed out, they were a mockery of Godly people. They looked the part, but, upon inspection, they weren’t quite right.

Paul warned about false believers.

I urge you, brothers and sisters, to watch out for those who cause divisions and put obstacles in your way that are contrary to the teaching you have learned. Keep away from them. For such people are not serving our Lord Christ, but their own appetites. By smooth talk and flattery they deceive the minds of naive people. - Romans 16:17-18

The people that look like Christians but can hurt the cause. They can distract people and draw them away from the path. They can make believers doubt their connection to God. They can be a danger; one we should do our best to avoid. It would be nice if we did have something like an Uncanny Valley response when we are in the presence of deceivers and false believers. Alas, there’s no such thing as a spiritual Uncanny Valley. However, we have something better - God’s Word and his Holy Spirit. We need only tap into that resource, and we'll be able to tell the difference between what is right and what isn’t.

Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will. - Romans 12:2

Chris Lawyer