In 1970 Masahiro Mori, a japanese robotics professor, described a phenomenon that the acceptance of a technically simulated, human-like entity (robots, avatars, etc.) does not increase steadily monotonically with the anthropomorphism (human-likeness) of this figure, but rather shows a sharp decline within a certain range. This was called the “Uncanny Valley”. It can be seen as an eerie sensation many humans feel when a robot appears extremely human.

Since approx. 2022 “Uncanny Valley” appears in a very few psychological papers w.r.t. to ASD and mainly reached social media. I deleted my TikTok account because it appears to me to be very toxic. But there you can find many self-proclaimed ASD experts using “Uncanny Valley” for describing the effect of unmasking of people on the autism spectrum has on neurotypicals. I had a short discussion with “Guardian of Mind” and it was exhausting because there was a major lack of knowledge w.r.t to the history behind the concept. You can’t simply use an established terminus used for describing an effect unalive objects imitating humans have on actual humans! It feels offensive in many ways. Using it for ASD dehumanizes a group of people leading to their exclusion from society.

Neurotypicals tend to often perceive people with ASD as weird and quirky. Maybe because the behavior is different from their expectations based on social cues which are sometimes missed by many people with autism. Many people with ASD mask in order to be accepted in society. This means, that they also show emotions as expected. Or at least they try. This might irritate people but it does not automatically mean that they experience the same feelings as when facing creepy, human-like robots. The same applies for cases in which the person with ASD unmasks and shows an indifferent facial expression. There’s also no scientific evidence that Mori’s hypothesis also applies to autistic folks.

Do people with ASD fall into neurotypical’s “uncanny valley”? My answer is clearly no!

Eventually “Uncanny Valley” is only a famous hypothesis on human-machine interactions and it’s a good thing that respectable/good research does not use this hypothesis on other human beings.

Here a picture I took of Geminoid HI 4 who should fall into the uncanny valley, btw.

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Mori, M. (2012). Translated by MacDorman, K. F.; Kageki, Norri. "The uncanny valley". IEEE Robotics and Automation. New York City: Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. 19 (2): 98–100. doi:10.1109/MRA.2012.2192811.

Price, D. (2022). Unmasking Autism: Discovering the New Faces of Neurodiversity. New York: Harmony Books.