Wow this video did well! Thank you all for your kind words and ideas in the comments, there are some things that I would like to say: 1. All songs and some clips played in the video can be found in the description 2. I didn't mean to imply that 0hio_Pingu_69 invented the idea of a Doppelganger, I was talking specifically about the Homomimus Fallacis. 3. Sorry for not putting the disturbing content warning earlier in the video, that is my bad. I don’t know why I put it in AFTER the intro. 4. Since I hit 10,000 subs and TH-cam doesn’t really like content like this, I now have a Patreon with some scripts already on it! 5. If you see any TH-camrs or streamers react to this video, let me know, I'd love to see their reaction. 6. I don’t know why there is a hotline under the video.
I don't believe in any of these theories. I believe in the santa theory(the one I made up). Picture yourself as a kid and you see santa, a large man wearing a plastic mask and you don't know who's behind the mask you simply can't tell. Now picture yourself as the kid again and you see santa, a large man wearing a plastic mask, but this time you know it's daddy behind that mask. It's the uncertainty from not being able to recognize patterns that you are not familiar to.
Why do we have uncanny valley? Neanderthals, they look almost human, they are not human, they hunted humans. Why do you have Neanderthal DNA? I hate to say, you could have that DNA by non-consensual means. Are you foolish enough to think two rival hominids (one being cannibalistic) had agreed on love and sharing of hunting grounds and resources? Something "that looked human" stormed into camps, cracked the skulls of stone-age human males, and ran off with the women. There is a large number of ancient males of various ages follow a pattern of their skull being crack. The same way we avoid snakes and spiders, we avoided or killed off all Neanderthals.
Half the comments I read seem scared out of their minds... Is this an obvious inside joke? But not a single comment I could search for said as such. I feel so in the dark, lmao
I like how you flashed all the creepy ahh things on screen during the intro BEFORE the disclaimer. Trying to weed out the weak before they got the chance I see
"I like how you flashed all the creepy ahh things on screen during the intro BEFORE the disclaimer. Trying to weed out the weak before they got th chance I see" 🤡💀🗣
I really like the theory that says that we are naturally repulsed by these images because it was (and still is) very important for our survival to be able to study someone's expression and body language, to try and guess their intentions. If for some reason we are unable to (distorted facial features, heavy makeup, a mask, etc.) we instinctively label that thing as unpredictable/dangerous. Apparently, it's the reason some people are afraid of clowns
Honestly the more fast paced funny style while discussing something more creepy felt kinda refreshing from the generic creepy essay videos. I really liked this one, keep it up
It was a little unnerving until I heard the goofy jazz music of Mario Galaxy played when you fight in a Tennis Match against a Giant Octopus King that bathes in Lava
While watching the video I thought of an interesting theory. It's probably been thought of before so I won't claim it or anything but I'll call it the "confliction theory". Essentially I think the uncanny valley effect is mainly your brain's reaction to conflicting information. Our brains are wired for survival first, and they usually HATE it when they can't be certain or sure of a situation. When you look at an uncanny face, your brain receives two conflicting signals. On one hand, the face checks all the boxes for what a human should look like, it has the right features, proportions, and structure. If you were to describe a human with words alone, this image would seem to fit. But at a deeper level, your brain compares the image to real human faces it has seen before. Something subtle feels off, maybe the expressions, skin texture, or eye movement don’t quite match what you expect. That mismatch creates confusion. One part of your brain is saying, “This is human,” while another part is saying, “Something’s wrong.” That internal conflict triggers a nervous or fearful response. It’s your brain reacting to uncertainty, and our brain HATE uncertainty. So because it can't guarantee there's no potential threat, it just goes into red alert.
“Uncanny-ness isn’t scary” *I think in my head as i turn my back to my wall and make sure my whole room is in my field of view as i scoot under my blanket and repulsively click the video*
Try staring into your eyes in the mirror in a dimly lit room. Your brain knows your image and is chill with it. But the evolutionary memory in you don't know your face. So within a few minutes it will trigger the response and you will feel uneasy looking at yourself. I tried it. Most people can handle it but in situations like yours , it's more effective.
@@User-mncbjlfjrebxkl I tried it once as a kid before i even knew about this. I was looking at myself in the mirror at night, shaking my head back and forth a bit. Eventually, for a split second, i felt as if my face changed, and i got extremely scared, man. I don't think i've ever been scared like that again. I definitely DO NOT recommend people try this.
these pics only bother me if it has pupils and is staring at or near the camera POV, russian sleep experiment, jeff the killer, momo, and this man, have always messed with me
It's likely because most of them have unnaturally large eyes and completely dilated pupils. A trait which most predators share. Orrrrrr, it might be the dilated pupils combined with a lack of shine in the eyes(which makes the eyes look flat and dull). It is reminiscent of eyes in a dead person.
You might be interested in dinopithecus for mimic theory. Some primates are known to mimic the voice of others when hunting (yes human does this too to monkeys), and they can definitely wear the skin of dead human. They’re known to be a danger to human, and human are known to systematically exterminate them in a committed effort. They also kinda look uncanny
I agree with disease theory, and more specifically the part about fearing or being disgusted by things/people who look or are dead. There are so many myths, stories, movies etc... of the undead, which shows how universal a fear it is. Seeing one of your species dead before you means danger is likely nearby as well. One of the biggest indicators that a person is dead is the eyes, and that's what most if not all of these images have in common. The eyes look dead, with that lifeless unblinking gaze that you only see on a corpse.
Ahh. . . So what you're saying is that the fact people are scared of me is probably related to the fact that I am not very good at eyeliner, tend to make eye-contact very intensely, and am paler than most people? XD Yeah, seems accurate.
2:15 Dude, this is scarier than the one you said was the scariest. In my personal opinion, I think uncanny valley really does just boil down to being a side effect of our incredible pattern recognition. It's so good that even the most subtlest of abnormalities in the visage can put us on edge because it looks fake, almost maliciously deceiving.
It’s a combination of that and other hominids, when humans first came around it was tough for us, but we started advancing and slowly beat other hominids. In the start they were still a major threat, so it is also likely due to a (useless) genetic feature to identify none humans
i feel like this one is the scariest to because it puts you in a situation while also being heavily uncanny. your home an area that is supposed to be your safe space is violated by monsters
yeah that specific video has always majorly fucked to me. it looks entirely human except the skin is gray, even the teeth and eyes, absolutely no color. its seeing something that shouldnt exist. a human with absolutely no color, like out of a screen, but its THERE. if its CGI its really convincing. if its a real person they did a damn good job with the practical effects.
Here is the exact reason why we fear the uncanny valley (source: trust me bro) TLDR: Our subconscious tells us if something is dangerous or not. When we see something uncanny, our conscious isn't immediately scared, but our subconscious warns us of potential danger. Basically, every human has a "gut feeling". This is not just a hunch, it's literally your brain doing subconscious calculations in the back and warning you that something doesn't add up. The best example I heard of this was a firefighter story. The firefighter goes into a burning building, the fire is slowly being put out but something doesn't feel right. The fire is quiet, the smoke isn't much and the color of the flame is slightly oranger... He gets a bad feeling about the whole situation and tells every other firefighter to get out of the building. After a little while an oxygen inflow happens and the whole building bursts into flames again. Now I don't know if I got all the details right on that story but the point is that his subconscious told him "we have seen many fires...something about this one isn't correct" is what creates what we call "gut feeling". Another great example is the "slightly weird lamp" story (if you don't know it look it up). The story has nothing to do with disease, human likeness or any other theory in the video. But it is off-putting because something doesn't feel right. Music can also be uncanny when playing off-tones and weird rythms. This is because most music is based on a certain formula that these scary songs break. This is all to say MY theory is that the uncanny valley is simply our gut feeling telling us something is wrong. Much like how the human likeness theory says. We can tell when something is human or not. We can also say when something is dangerous or not. If a guy is simply walking then he isn't considered dangerous. If a guy is running at you with a knife then he is considered dangerous. But if a guy is shifting his eyes, hands in pocket, with uneven breathing...We can't tell for certain but our subconscious will notify us that he isn't exactly *safe*. We see humans, dolls and animals all the time. We know what a normal one looks like. But when we see something that is just a little odd and we can't consciously place it, it becomes uncanny as our gut feeling warns us that it is dangerous.
Looked up about the weird lamp story, and now I don't know whether the guy who wrote it was trolling, was on crack, had fallen from the doctor's arms when he was born, or all of them combined
I've seen SO MANY videos about the uncanny valley that I thought I'd never learn anything new about it, so this was a great watch! They always talk about what it is, and potential theories of why are always an afterthought, a few sentences in the book. This was really interesting to listen to (and watch, thanks for the nightmare fuel imagery btw!) and gave me some pointers for further reading, thanks!
I mean science needs money at the end of the day. For equipment, surveys, the scientists, lab assistants etc. As someone who's in that sphere, everyone hounds for grants and funding. Literally. We are all taught from day one that we have to sell ourselves, and our interests as a product. That's what it is. And unfortunately, the Uncanny Valley is not very profitable. That's why studies on it aren't very popular. Anyone who has an interest in studying it, is just not able to.
there's a lot of research on the uncanny, not specifically the uncanny valley. you likely won't find scientific studies but there's a plethora of literature and art based off it! like the other commenter said, freud and ernst jentsch are the foundations for learning abt it, but theres many ppl whove simplified their writings to make it easier
Stuff like this really freaks me out, but the way you talked abt it kind of made me feel settled and like I was safe and with a friend; which is rare these days. This was a really good video!! You’ve got yourself a new subscriber 🩷
Hey ... stare into the mirror for sometime. Like look into your eyes for sometime...you will start to feel uneasy after some time... you just triggered your evolutionary memory.... Your brain knows the image of yourself but your deeper subconscious wiring from tens of thousands of evolution cannot connect to it. So it starts triggering. Try this at home. Stare right at your eyes.
I first noticed this with manequins and dead bodies at funerals it's the fact that they are perfectly still. It freaks me out when I walk by a manequin, I always have to be looking at it because it feels like it's gonna jump at me
There might be a mix going on with the stillness where on one hand, we have a natural repulsion to what might be a dead body, but on the other we also know that humans are easily capable of pretending to be dead or asleep (hense the feat that they might suddenly jump at you)
It should be important not to assume it's not a blend of theories. Sometimes we get so obsessed with finding THE answer, that we don't realize reality doesn't kneel to our expectations. It could be 30+ reasons blended together and dependent on each individual scenario.
Exactly, each one can work, the disease theory makes sense, the different tribes theory makes sense, the mimic/ predator theory might make a bit of sense, plus we’re smart, and social creatures, so ofc we’d be scared of that
My theory is that the uncanny feeling arise from the still, almost mask like appearance of the subject. This gives out a feeling that the uncanny subject is unpredictable and as if it is plotting something sinister behind that facade. Just like how some people are afraid of the dark because of the things that could be hidden in it. People feel creeped out by the uncanny subjects because the the seemingly unpredictable actions it may unleash.
It's kind of a secular interpretation of the spiritual theory. But instead what's off is some form of psychopathy or narcissism that communicates anti social tendencies.
I personally think it's the fact our brains are really good at using patterns to recognize a face. Example being like two circles and a line o_o, but it's not creepy bc our brain knows it's not a face. We see it as a face. I think that when something gets to realistic while looking off, it sends mixed signals that confuse the brain and causes fear.
It ultimately boils down to the fear of the unknown. Our brain HATE not knowing something or something not making sense. A creature that somewhat looks like a human but not really and we dont know exactly what it is or what it does is more terrifying to us than something that we know is dangerous such as a bear or a tiger. Our brains prefer a known danger than an unknown one. I would much rather meet a bear in the woods than one of these mimics because I am well aware of the danger that a bear posseses and what it can do but not the mimic. It is also why humans have a fear of the dark. It is because we do not know who or what might be hiding in it since we have poor night vision, a fear of the unknown. Even in my dreams for example when I meet a wolf or a tiger I sometimes try and fight back but when it is a demon like creature or a creepy mimic like creature I just start running with much greater fear than when a wolf or a tiger crossed my path, and I do not even consider fighting back because my brain is not fully aware of the danger that creature might possess.
Immediately subscribed ! Love the commentary, the editing and…yeah this video was a little hard to sit through cuz of all the go pics but damn u got me hooked.
13:58 „fun“ fact: we used to wear wolves skin to hunt whatever the equivalence of cattle was because we didn‘t know how they‘d react if encountered by humans, but we did know how they reacted to wolves
I think the other more probable reason is that our hair isnt thick enough to insulate our bodies from the cold temperatures we migrated into. Having evolved for the arid climate along the East Coast of Africa it seems like we didn't need to have fur like other mammals. But moving into regions like Europe which were freezing cold in certain points of the year, we instantly were confronted with the need for warmth. Wolves have evolved to grow fur which can protect them, as have other animals. Of course we then realised "wow that stuff keeps those guys warm lets wear that". Pretty gross imo, but we still do it and unlike those days, we have more than enough power to save ourselves from the cold without hunting animals into extinction, we just choose not to because we are the greatest killer in the history of all life, and our arrogance in our place in nature drives us to feel its right to slaughter and destroy the rest of the animals. We're a pretty sick species all things considered.
The Boo at the start of you showing us the scariest thing is why I subscribed because I like your humor and it made me feel better. It was like gentle parenting like “See? that was the scariest it gets.”
I think the human like-ness theory is what i find the most believable. Our brain is deeply coded into finding human faces, even when they arent there. This ability is called pareidolia. I think uncanny valley is where our brain tries badly to find a face and when it finds one, it realises that this isnt really a human so we have a slight fear of it. Maybe the brain just tries hard to find a similar creature or thing that fits, but the only thing that matches is a human and this thing is definetly not one, which is new and uncomfortable for our mind.
we often forget that homo sapiens competed with 4-7 other human species in our history depending on your source, so it makes sense we'd have an instinctive dislike of something almost exactly like Sapiens but a little different (Neanderthals, Denisovans, Homo Naledi, Homo Floresiensis, and Homo Erectus to name the major ones). It's like how most dogs instinctively hate other canids like wolves and coyotes IMO
@@smugscribbles6667 Though we did do the badoingle with them (Europeans with Neanderthals and asia/oceania people with Denovians) so that doesn't quite hold up from a historical standpoint. Then again those hominid species were close enough to us that I'm sure many people didn't have that reaction at all.
i think this is the best theory. humans today have not seen something that looks human but isn't. that alone would scare the shit out of anyone because we are literally the the top of the food chain.
I don't think the phenomenon of pareidolia (perceiving emerging patterns in random stimuli) is part of the uncanny valley explanation. If it were the case, we would be unsetttled by any kind of stimuli which could be imagined to be a human face. But part of the uncanny valley concept is, that we are just fine with faces that don't look too human. As you point out, our brains are highly tuned to perceive and recognize faces. But we are also very keen at spotting traits that appear abnormal or 'off'. I don't think our brains struggle to differentiate human faces from look-alikes. Poorly done cosmetic surgery is a good example. Clearly a human face - but at the same time off or wrong. I find the disease hypothesis most compelling. It makes good sense to avoid humans which, due to disease appear abnormal. However, I think another strong factor is the staring gaze most of these faces have. Someone or something looking at you with an intense stare will often be perceived as threatening. Try it out yourself on someone and see how they react.
The insticts of this fear is unbelievable, my body reacts to every creepy image shown in the video while i (my conscious mind ig) expected them and wasnt startled of them
Yeah, images of almost human creatures scare more than anything, literally anything. Even the image of the most perfectly designed human killing machine does not come close. I'm not getting any sleep tonight, am I? 😂
Hey ... stare into the mirror for sometime. Like look into your eyes for sometime...you will start to feel uneasy after some time... you just triggered your evolutionary memory.... Your brain knows the image of yourself but your deeper subconscious wiring from tens of thousands of evolution cannot connect to it. So it starts triggering. Try this at home. Stare right at your eyes.
Bro really upped the ante with the Mimic Theory Intro. The entirety of the video was more debate-focused and nonchalant. And since you got copyrighted, The Predator Theory and then The Disease Theory Intro was completely goofy and satirical. Then... then the Mimic Theory hit. Damn, dude, that gave me goosebumps! Loved the video btw. 💖
the concept of "the stranger" from the magnus archives really delves into this concept well! it's worth checking out (the entire podcast is great but the fears especially. top notch stuff)
16:16 i think it's because they look like they don't fear you at all like other creatures and it's just our instinct that makes us uncomfortable because we don't know how it's gonna attack or smth
Nothing in humanity's "recent" history can explain the "mimic theory". There has never been something that could appear human enough to trick us. It almost certainly comes from something much earlier in our evolution.
@@eliskaslovakova3897this is probably the most likely reason honestly, there are diseases out there that fuck you up bad (disfigurement wise) but also make you go crazy against everybody else which would make it (atleast early in our evolution) beneficial for others to point that out
Sorta unrelated, but I find it super creepy that birds can mimic humans. You can imagine some prehistoric birds crying out for mommy like a small child, luring the humans in so they can rip them apart with giant talons or whatever. Or like, what if a Terror Bird could talk, fuckin no thanks. Maybe the visual uncanny valley is related to that auditory one. Actually, now that i'm thinking of it, I saw this vid talking about uncontacted tribes in the amazon making animal calls (like certain monkey sounds and such) as a way of covertly communicating. You'd hear a spidermonkey call, but it was just _slightly_ off, and you know that means you're being watched by some scary fucking people.
I have heard this theory before, but I quite literally think it is because of Neanderthals. We evolved to be weaker than Neanderthals, and they look (roughly) like us, so I get why we would be afraid of them. They are human, but not at the same time. Larger head, broader cheekbones, more muscular faces, much larger frame, but close enough that they could ride the line of 'human'.
While it may be unclear what underlying evolutionary factors helped shape the uncanny valley, Im pretty sure i know what it scares ME specifically: It feels intentional. It CHOOSES to let you stop and stare at it. Rather than hide or sprint in for an all out attack or even surround you, something deep in the valley wants to be seen. I think thats what messes with me the most, honestly - its a level of malicious, cruel intelligence that feels distinctly unnatural and horrifically human at the same time
@@TheGoldenDunsparce see, but that feels weirdly clueless (to me at least). Its like when your dog stares at you afterwards tearing the trash open as if they didn't do it lol "oh me? Nonono, me human, no eat you", and that makes it more funny than scary imo With the intentional trickery tho, it KNOWS you know, but its confident that it has you now and this is the last thing you'll see. I find, like, faces in doorways to be similar - its sadistic, its happy to be seen, and it doesnt matter what you do. It just like watching for now, as you realize. Thats just me tho
i love this funny little way of talking abt creepy stuff, i like to watch creepy content but some chanels, SURPRISINLY, gets me creeped out. this way i can learn and not have nightmares before going to sleep. nice video!
My theory is that since our brains are so good at recognizing faces, even when there aren't any, when we notice something off we immediately think about predators. Like that "Face" that I saw moving a second ago, could just be the pattern of a wolf skin that I glanced at and my brain just told me "Yep, that's a face, a fucked up one but a face nonetheless" and then goes "Wait... a fucked up face?" and then fear comes in.
The 3 main theories of uncanny valley is predators,sickness and ability to read intentions. Sickness: •Pale skin •Unfocused eyes •Uneven teeth •Struggle to move We automatically avoid sickness we don't understand Reading intentions: •The symptoms I just listed are common in cannibals hence the first thought is typically "this person wants to eat you" Finally now that we know this thing is a predator it's given the predator response: •Keep your eyes on it. It may pounce. •Does it hunt in packs? •How fast is it? Remember that throughout history, cannibalism was extremely common as was plague. You don't know how desperate someone can get. When there's no food, but your body does.
There is theory, that is hopefully wrong - that there did exist something dangerous, that resembled human. So, those who could differentiate between that thing and normal human, survived, everybody else died.
I feel like the mimic theory (might) make the most sense to me because if we all take a look at nature, we've seen flies that look like bees; insects that look like sticks, leaves, and tree barks; animals that disguise themselves by changing color, etc. And most of the time(in my opinion, so I could be wrong), it was more so that prey used mimicking or disguises to confuse/trick predators. But who is to say that predators can't disguise themselves to trick the prey?
The problem with that theory is that humans are the absolute worst creature in the history of this planet for something to evolve to specialize at hunting. We're pack animals, making it rather difficult for a species to reliably prey on lone individuals. We're able to kill creatures many times our size and strength while outside of its attack range by throwing pointy sticks at them. We're also vengeful, and will hunt down entire groups of any creature that manages to kill one of our own. This all makes it very unlikely to me that something would fall into such a niche when they could just hunt deer or something instead. It's just far too risky to be successful for the milennia it would take to evolve into something that looks like us. It's like something evolving to specifically hunt wolves, but 10x riskier. That said, it is my personal favorite out of the theories just because of how creepy it is.
i dont think thats likely as humans werent a very widespread species until fairly recently. A predator that evolved to solely prey on us would struggle to find food, especially if they need to be strong enough to easily overpower a human which is a very large creature. Having a single prey species is kind of a bad adaptation overall. The reason mimicking works for prey is because it will work on most predators which makes it very versatile but the reverse isnt true.
@@propaneman9579 Maybe we are pack animals because of the uncanny valley itself, the best way of stopping a creature like this is staying together. Of course there are 10.000 other reasons for why we benefit from staying together, but this might be a factor. The first instinct that we have after being scared is seeking other people after all. Perhaps we weren't always like this, and this scenario would make it very easy for a mimic to pick us off. Even then its still very unlikely but i don't think its totally impossible
@@propaneman9579also I want to add that there are very few to no animals that have evolved to be predators of other predators exclusively. As nutritients move up the food chain a lot is lost. As the deer eats the grass, he gets 100% energy, as the wolf eats the deer, he only gets 50% of what the grass offers the deer. And if you eat a wolf, you barely get anything. It’s not quality meat, not to mention parasites and disease which are often carried in wolf or bear meat
And they do. The flashy colours of the tiger are flashy colours to us, bright organge, pearly white, and bleak black. For its prey, however, they see a limited colour spectrum and the tiger pelt looks green and blends with the enviroment
I like to think it’s a combination of a few things. 1. Is that humans weren’t always the top of the food chain. There was a good chunk of our history where we shared the top with others. So basically a predator/ prey instinct. 2. Is the illnesses theory. Mainly because we tend to become a little more hyper aware around the sick in order to protect ourselves. 3. Is definitely the mimic theory but not in the way you think. In recent years all forms of media have shown things that look human but aren’t that always hunts humans. This triggers our fear that we are not the top of the food chain. Even if it’s not real it makes us paranoid.
@@KUNAIBABE Oh dang i remember watching weird ass documentaries on it like 5 years ago and i knew it sounded familiar, thank you man i appreciate it 🙇♂️
Imo this is debatable, the reason Angels are so beautiful is because they roam in Heaven, Gods light and love; but Satan is outside of that, what is to say that among all of the other punishments God gave Satan, taking away his beauty was not among them?
corpses! i think we evolved to be afraid of corpses!! but not from diseases. you see, death is a scary concept, and we as a species have grown to fear it! since someone can’t be sure what CAUSED someone to die nearby them. it could be ANYTHING. i also think that it could be our incredible pattern recognition! if we’re able to see faces in regular items (i.e. cars), then we’d EASILY be able to pick out features of something that is inhuman within a human-like face.
that and also a lot of these uncanny valley type images have disproportionately large eyes, dilated pupils, large mouths and wide smiles (snarls), bursts of sudden movement (predated by stillness), and are directly staring at you, which are very common in predators stalking their prey
In rare cases some ancient human tribes and hominids didn’t kill, go to war with, or threaten other hominids, but instead straight up hunted and ate them, wearing their bones and certain body parts to invoke fear in other tribes
I still believe it to be other hominid theory/ other humans. Something you're not considering is if you were being hunted by another person they wouldn't be clearly visible sure a Neanderthal doesn’t look that off putting but imagine you were just going to bed and you see something that looks like a face off in the distance. I feel because the brain has parts dedicated to reading faces and interacting with humans when you see a face in a place it shouldn't be it triggers that feeling of something wrong.
The problem with this theory though is that it's possible that Neanderthals went extinct because we cross breed with them, which would explain why people carry small traces of Neanderthal genes. I'm not specialized in this stuff so don't take my word for it. (Eg: the theory conflicts with another theory which would make the other theory irrelevant.)
This can also apply to the mimic theory. Since it uses vaguely human faces, it makes sense to develop a flight response to danger which you do not recognize or do not know. *We fear the unknown* and that we are used to looking at faces when we socialize or just go about our lives as we live mainly in societies which also forces us to socialize. When something looks vaguely like a face, we recognize it as incomplete, lacking information, therefore it comes down to fight or flight, but the human nature of fearing what it doesn't understand or know, makes us lean into fear and avoiding whatever it is, so we can possibly reach other people to investigate as a group, or observe it from a safe distance or high ground where we know we are isolated from it.
I personally think the Hominid theory is pretty compelling for the reason that, compared to other species, other hominids were definitely much more of a threat to us than other species because we occupied very similar niches. For the same reason us humans are racist towards other groups of humans, its from an in-out group, prioritizing your own kind for an evolutionary advantage. I definitely think its very believable we evolved to be somewhat off-put by non-homo sapiens features, though a thing to note that doesn't entirely mean we were too scared of them to not form relationships like we definitely did. Its more that I believe its a trend than a definite rule, hell the uncanny valley itself doesn't even affect everyone, or even all fears. When it comes to stuff that evolved into our psyche its never really cut and dry like saying "all humans are afraid of snakes because we evolved to fear them," since humans have a capacity to be desensitized or learn to not fear things. I just kinda think this could be a somewhat good reason to explain why many of us have this fear, saying that our brain just defaults to a fear response when we see something not completely human feels like a cop out since its not always true. That being said I do also think it is a completely reasonable explanation as well, like an evolved Better Safe than Sorry measure whenever we don't know whether to fear something or not because its novel.
I can understand your skepticism at the disease theory at the earlier part of the video, but i think it's good to remember that fears can be triggered in more abstract ways. Like how someone's fear of death can be triggered by the vastness of space or the deepness of the ocean. So it could be that uncanny faces that don't look like any actual diseased or dead people still in some instinctual, mechanical way (if that word makes sense in this context lol) still trigger the same things that seeing an actually horribly diseased or dead person might.
I woulda guessed its just down to our brains recognising something that should be very familiar and we automatically know everything about- BUT, its not QUITE right, and that triggers unease. And the reason it most effects us in relation to human like things is because several large parts of our brain is specifically designed just for recognising human faces and distinguishing them from each other - so when these deep seated automatic face recognition areas of the brain trigger in these cases but they are not quite right, and we can tell faces do NOT look quite like whatever this is.. uncanny valley.
Okay, I wanted to be spooked by the start of the Mimic Theory, but that song is an absolute banger, so I just started jamming out a little bit while looking at various horror images. 10/10 music choice, but I am SO glad that I decided to not watch this at 2 AM
I've always believed that the uncanny valley is rooted in a deep-seated fear of the animated dead. Even in CGI humans, it's often the eyes that give them away they carry that unsettling, lifeless quality. No matter how perfect the rest of the model is, the eyes often remain disturbingly vacant. Things that fall into the uncanny valley tend to have that "dead eye" look, and when they move or seem to move it feels like watching a corpse that hasn't decomposed yet, brought to life in a way that defies nature. For me its the same with fear of the dead or morgue etc.
This is the first video of yours I’ve ever watched and I really enjoyed it! I myself prefer slower paced videos especially for creepy stuff. I need time to LOOK and absorb whatever creature you’re showing
I feel it ties back in to our general fear of the unknown. Like "Why does something feel off" COULD be why it's scary. Think about every creepy video, or image we've seen. The first thing we do is look for the context or meaning behind it, and that could be the major reason why we find the uncanny valley scary. That's why when we look at the same scary/uncanny image, we don't get the same feeling we had when we first saw it. I do think it could be a mix of the disease and mimic theory, but it depends on certain contexts
as someone not affected by the uncanny valley at all, this video was absolutely fascinating to watch and see all the different theories people put forward as to why it such a disturbing thing. like i always shrugged it off bc i truly dont understand why people are so creeped out by it, but some of the theories have put it into perspective for me
Wow this video did well! Thank you all for your kind words and ideas in the comments, there are some things that I would like to say:
1. All songs and some clips played in the video can be found in the description
2. I didn't mean to imply that 0hio_Pingu_69 invented the idea of a Doppelganger, I was talking specifically about the Homomimus Fallacis.
3. Sorry for not putting the disturbing content warning earlier in the video, that is my bad. I don’t know why I put it in AFTER the intro.
4. Since I hit 10,000 subs and TH-cam doesn’t really like content like this, I now have a Patreon with some scripts already on it!
5. If you see any TH-camrs or streamers react to this video, let me know, I'd love to see their reaction.
6. I don’t know why there is a hotline under the video.
Great video
On EVERYONE'S soul, WE are ALL buying the MOST EXPENSIVE Patreon role
I don't believe in any of these theories. I believe in the santa theory(the one I made up).
Picture yourself as a kid and you see santa, a large man wearing a plastic mask and you don't know who's behind the mask you simply can't tell.
Now picture yourself as the kid again and you see santa, a large man wearing a plastic mask, but this time you know it's daddy behind that mask.
It's the uncertainty from not being able to recognize patterns that you are not familiar to.
Why do we have uncanny valley?
Neanderthals, they look almost human, they are not human, they hunted humans. Why do you have Neanderthal DNA? I hate to say, you could have that DNA by non-consensual means. Are you foolish enough to think two rival hominids (one being cannibalistic) had agreed on love and sharing of hunting grounds and resources?
Something "that looked human" stormed into camps, cracked the skulls of stone-age human males, and ran off with the women. There is a large number of ancient males of various ages follow a pattern of their skull being crack.
The same way we avoid snakes and spiders, we avoided or killed off all Neanderthals.
SO MUCH LOVE RO MEISTER
my man DID NOT need to put so many disturbing pics at the start
He's doing it on purpose at this point 😭
@@OperatorXIcuz he's explaining fear
They are not really that disturbing bruh
bruh
Half the comments I read seem scared out of their minds... Is this an obvious inside joke?
But not a single comment I could search for said as such. I feel so in the dark, lmao
"This is the scariest image"
**Proceeds to make me physically shiver during the mimic theory intro**
for real
Ideas are scarier than any image man can conjure
@@Modern_Diogenes 📖✍️🔥
fr
And that one video with the face in the opened door at like 2:15 was also scarier than that image he showed.
"You're not alone" thanks, as if watching this video at midnight wasn't scary enough.
you're never truly alone
@@ocel6037I’m more scared now 😭
Honestly even if someone said "you're alone" there'd still be this doubt to whether or not you're *actually* alone
fr
I'm home alone rn, and I read that when I was watching the mimic theory intro...yeah I might have freaked out
Absolutely loving the suicide hotline under the video lmao
I thought that was just me
Haha I was so confused about it as well.
"You are not alone" ha, that's what I was afraid of, thanks
I like how you flashed all the creepy ahh things on screen during the intro BEFORE the disclaimer. Trying to weed out the weak before they got the chance I see
😂
but why skibidi toilet tho
@@dooberschip To keep the kids interested
"I like how you flashed all the creepy ahh things on screen during the intro BEFORE the disclaimer. Trying to weed out the weak before they got th chance I see" 🤡💀🗣
@@DavidKopplerOh naaaah 💔💔🥀😭✋️🙏✋️
I did not need to watch this at night in a dark room with my only light source being MW3 and my Playstation 3 console light
amazing pfp
Goated game
Why do we do this to ourselves. I have dishes to wash and I'm all alone in the kitchen.
@@huaggen7246 you're not alone.
Time traveler from 2011 over here
Bro really put Diddy in the uncanny valley.
Yeah bro in the predator section
Please stfu. D*ddy jokes are not jokes at all. Real people were harmed. And you're here joking about a disgusting predator.
Don't he look a bit off ,like bro is actually uncany
Five nights at diddy
@@fahad3084he look like a thumb
this video just added so many more images to my collection of images that my brain randomly jumpscares me with when i'm trying to fall asleep
I really like the theory that says that we are naturally repulsed by these images because it was (and still is) very important for our survival to be able to study someone's expression and body language, to try and guess their intentions. If for some reason we are unable to (distorted facial features, heavy makeup, a mask, etc.) we instinctively label that thing as unpredictable/dangerous. Apparently, it's the reason some people are afraid of clowns
Some people have a thing for clowns, though. So what does that mean?
@SlapShotTakes The brain can reinterpret a traumatizing experience into a fond memory as defense mechanism.
@SlapShotTakesmost fetishes come from fears in infancy or traumatic events
@SlapShotTakes not the same type of clowns.
Source: Into clown girls, kinda scared of the classic clown.
Basically the fear of the unknown again :)
Honestly the more fast paced funny style while discussing something more creepy felt kinda refreshing from the generic creepy essay videos. I really liked this one, keep it up
It was a little unnerving until I heard the goofy jazz music of Mario Galaxy played when you fight in a Tennis Match against a Giant Octopus King that bathes in Lava
While watching the video I thought of an interesting theory. It's probably been thought of before so I won't claim it or anything but I'll call it the "confliction theory".
Essentially I think the uncanny valley effect is mainly your brain's reaction to conflicting information. Our brains are wired for survival first, and they usually HATE it when they can't be certain or sure of a situation.
When you look at an uncanny face, your brain receives two conflicting signals. On one hand, the face checks all the boxes for what a human should look like, it has the right features, proportions, and structure. If you were to describe a human with words alone, this image would seem to fit.
But at a deeper level, your brain compares the image to real human faces it has seen before. Something subtle feels off, maybe the expressions, skin texture, or eye movement don’t quite match what you expect.
That mismatch creates confusion. One part of your brain is saying, “This is human,” while another part is saying, “Something’s wrong.” That internal conflict triggers a nervous or fearful response. It’s your brain reacting to uncertainty, and our brain HATE uncertainty. So because it can't guarantee there's no potential threat, it just goes into red alert.
cool, that's crazy
that is the most sound explanation for the uncanny valley I have ever heard. I'm gonna steal that, thats a great idea
That's just basically another way of describing the human-likeness theory
I agree yeah I hate it when I'm confused
This is the most believeable thing
good job on putting the scariest image right before the disclaimer
“Uncanny-ness isn’t scary” *I think in my head as i turn my back to my wall and make sure my whole room is in my field of view as i scoot under my blanket and repulsively click the video*
Try staring into your eyes in the mirror in a dimly lit room. Your brain knows your image and is chill with it. But the evolutionary memory in you don't know your face. So within a few minutes it will trigger the response and you will feel uneasy looking at yourself. I tried it. Most people can handle it but in situations like yours , it's more effective.
@@User-mncbjlfjrebxkldamn i’ll try this tonight hope i don’t die
Literally man! I'm pressing my soles on the ground rn because i got cold feet, haha.
@@User-mncbjlfjrebxkl I tried it once as a kid before i even knew about this. I was looking at myself in the mirror at night, shaking my head back and forth a bit. Eventually, for a split second, i felt as if my face changed, and i got extremely scared, man. I don't think i've ever been scared like that again. I definitely DO NOT recommend people try this.
If you guys ever feel scared just remember you can whip it out to make yourself feel better. Now, what exactly you whip out is up to you.
Instructions unclear. I did that to a female ghost and she's on my thing 😮
@@Cube09gamer do you feel better?
When in doubt
@@twinengine20ndalways
Hell yeah, I’m going to whip out my spider encyclopedia
The feature that scares me the most with the uncanny valley pictures are the eyes
Fr😭🙏
these pics only bother me if it has pupils and is staring at or near the camera POV, russian sleep experiment, jeff the killer, momo, and this man, have always messed with me
They lack any life
The empty soulless shrinked eyes and the darkness around it, covering the rest of its body except it's face.. :p
It's likely because most of them have unnaturally large eyes and completely dilated pupils.
A trait which most predators share.
Orrrrrr, it might be the dilated pupils combined with a lack of shine in the eyes(which makes the eyes look flat and dull). It is reminiscent of eyes in a dead person.
You might be interested in dinopithecus for mimic theory. Some primates are known to mimic the voice of others when hunting (yes human does this too to monkeys), and they can definitely wear the skin of dead human. They’re known to be a danger to human, and human are known to systematically exterminate them in a committed effort. They also kinda look uncanny
NAHH THE DIDDY AT THE PREDATOR THEORY
I spy a Tyler pfp 👀
@@Magg0tBønes1 honestly i only changed it for one video's sake
i like how i'm seeing more tyler vitelli pfps floating around
WHAT
made me laugh kmao
I agree with disease theory, and more specifically the part about fearing or being disgusted by things/people who look or are dead. There are so many myths, stories, movies etc... of the undead, which shows how universal a fear it is. Seeing one of your species dead before you means danger is likely nearby as well. One of the biggest indicators that a person is dead is the eyes, and that's what most if not all of these images have in common. The eyes look dead, with that lifeless unblinking gaze that you only see on a corpse.
Ahh. . . So what you're saying is that the fact people are scared of me is probably related to the fact that I am not very good at eyeliner, tend to make eye-contact very intensely, and am paler than most people? XD
Yeah, seems accurate.
This isn’t even true… In many cultures, corpses aren’t feared at all, and people, including kids, are perfectly happy seeing exhumed family members.
@@Deceitful_Jester watch Kabuki .
??@@Deceitful_Jester
@@Deceitful_Jester eye contact doesn't scare people but you might need to improve at eyeliner
i like the fast paced funny style. especially with the creepy stuff, its comforting in like the wrong ways. like youre the mimic bro
THE MIMIC!!!!
@@smol_lil_demon THE MIMIC!!!!!
My name is edwin. I made the mimic.
@@penguinplus1238it was difficult to put the pieces together
@@dummy581but unfortunately something went so wrong
“Badoingle” I CANT TAKE THE VIDEO SERIOUSLY ANYMORE
This whole video is making me shiver my timbers 😭
Same but only difference is because I’m outside 😅
@AlejandroChavez-ju5qrnah its 3 am and im scared of nightmares dude
I thought they're going to show South Koreans LMAO!
Shiver me Tims
ill shiver your timbers
2:15 Dude, this is scarier than the one you said was the scariest.
In my personal opinion, I think uncanny valley really does just boil down to being a side effect of our incredible pattern recognition. It's so good that even the most subtlest of abnormalities in the visage can put us on edge because it looks fake, almost maliciously deceiving.
This exactly. I guess that would be the same as the human likeness theory, but yes.
It’s a combination of that and other hominids, when humans first came around it was tough for us, but we started advancing and slowly beat other hominids. In the start they were still a major threat, so it is also likely due to a (useless) genetic feature to identify none humans
Nothing has made me audibly yell in fear to the extent that that did-
i feel like this one is the scariest to because it puts you in a situation while also being heavily uncanny. your home an area that is supposed to be your safe space is violated by monsters
yeah that specific video has always majorly fucked to me. it looks entirely human except the skin is gray, even the teeth and eyes, absolutely no color. its seeing something that shouldnt exist. a human with absolutely no color, like out of a screen, but its THERE. if its CGI its really convincing. if its a real person they did a damn good job with the practical effects.
Here is the exact reason why we fear the uncanny valley (source: trust me bro)
TLDR: Our subconscious tells us if something is dangerous or not. When we see something uncanny, our conscious isn't immediately scared, but our subconscious warns us of potential danger.
Basically, every human has a "gut feeling". This is not just a hunch, it's literally your brain doing subconscious calculations in the back and warning you that something doesn't add up.
The best example I heard of this was a firefighter story. The firefighter goes into a burning building, the fire is slowly being put out but something doesn't feel right. The fire is quiet, the smoke isn't much and the color of the flame is slightly oranger... He gets a bad feeling about the whole situation and tells every other firefighter to get out of the building. After a little while an oxygen inflow happens and the whole building bursts into flames again. Now I don't know if I got all the details right on that story but the point is that his subconscious told him "we have seen many fires...something about this one isn't correct" is what creates what we call "gut feeling".
Another great example is the "slightly weird lamp" story (if you don't know it look it up). The story has nothing to do with disease, human likeness or any other theory in the video. But it is off-putting because something doesn't feel right. Music can also be uncanny when playing off-tones and weird rythms. This is because most music is based on a certain formula that these scary songs break.
This is all to say MY theory is that the uncanny valley is simply our gut feeling telling us something is wrong. Much like how the human likeness theory says. We can tell when something is human or not. We can also say when something is dangerous or not. If a guy is simply walking then he isn't considered dangerous. If a guy is running at you with a knife then he is considered dangerous. But if a guy is shifting his eyes, hands in pocket, with uneven breathing...We can't tell for certain but our subconscious will notify us that he isn't exactly *safe*. We see humans, dolls and animals all the time. We know what a normal one looks like. But when we see something that is just a little odd and we can't consciously place it, it becomes uncanny as our gut feeling warns us that it is dangerous.
I think the “something is wrong part” is just the religious/soulless theory
@@liundeirkil8706 I really like this explanation and the way you worded it 👍.
Looked up about the weird lamp story, and now I don't know whether the guy who wrote it was trolling, was on crack, had fallen from the doctor's arms when he was born, or all of them combined
@Medkittt yeah but inanimate stuff like the fire or the lamp can feel wrong. I think its more about fearing the unknown or perhaps a survival thing.
I was thinking quite the same thing, that's why I support the human likeness theory
I've seen SO MANY videos about the uncanny valley that I thought I'd never learn anything new about it, so this was a great watch! They always talk about what it is, and potential theories of why are always an afterthought, a few sentences in the book. This was really interesting to listen to (and watch, thanks for the nightmare fuel imagery btw!) and gave me some pointers for further reading, thanks!
The uncanny valley is crazy scary and that fact there aren’t more studies or research about it is surprising. Love the video style too
Freud studied this [Unheimlich] in 1919, long time ago
@@user-fj9uh8mg7wwell freud isn’t exactly the most praised psychologist 😭😭😭 he got like a few things right and then kinda got lost in the sauce man 🥀🥀
I mean science needs money at the end of the day. For equipment, surveys, the scientists, lab assistants etc. As someone who's in that sphere, everyone hounds for grants and funding. Literally. We are all taught from day one that we have to sell ourselves, and our interests as a product. That's what it is.
And unfortunately, the Uncanny Valley is not very profitable. That's why studies on it aren't very popular. Anyone who has an interest in studying it, is just not able to.
there's a lot of research on the uncanny, not specifically the uncanny valley. you likely won't find scientific studies but there's a plethora of literature and art based off it! like the other commenter said, freud and ernst jentsch are the foundations for learning abt it, but theres many ppl whove simplified their writings to make it easier
There are plenty of recent studies, what are you talking about?
11:10 "I was sick so my voice sounds weird in this part. YEAH NICE TRY MIMIC
Lmao exactly what I thought lmao
@@creepyboi8299same
my name is the fucking mimic
You had WAYYY too much fun editing this 🤣 great video tho. You just got a new subscriber
honestly🤣🤣🤣
Great video, I get strong nostalgic vibes from your channel, this is the type of stuff I used to watch back in the good ol’ days, keep it up
Stuff like this really freaks me out, but the way you talked abt it kind of made me feel settled and like I was safe and with a friend; which is rare these days. This was a really good video!! You’ve got yourself a new subscriber 🩷
We have the same name (almost) 🧚🏻♂️
Hey ... stare into the mirror for sometime. Like look into your eyes for sometime...you will start to feel uneasy after some time... you just triggered your evolutionary memory.... Your brain knows the image of yourself but your deeper subconscious wiring from tens of thousands of evolution cannot connect to it. So it starts triggering. Try this at home. Stare right at your eyes.
excellent gooning material! keep it up bro
What
Why
cornball
How
HUH?
0:10 you did not need to put skibidi toilet in there-
Or Mr. Incredible becoming uncanny honestly, it's a meme so it's not that scary for me
Mr incredible looks alright
Skibidy ‼️🔥‼️🔥🦈🔥🦈🔥
@@MrKonkeyDong 100%
Skibidi toilet Is gay
ah yes, the best video before going to sleep at 1am absolutely perfect! marvelous!
I first noticed this with manequins and dead bodies at funerals
it's the fact that they are perfectly still.
It freaks me out when I walk by a manequin, I always have to be looking at it because it feels like it's gonna jump at me
Just so you know mannequins are secretly alive so you have a very good reason to be afraid of them like that
@@TweakStudio I agree each time you sleep they watch you through your windows or walls
There might be a mix going on with the stillness where on one hand, we have a natural repulsion to what might be a dead body, but on the other we also know that humans are easily capable of pretending to be dead or asleep (hense the feat that they might suddenly jump at you)
Ultrakill mannequin jumpscare 😭
@SumMfGoober What?
It should be important not to assume it's not a blend of theories. Sometimes we get so obsessed with finding THE answer, that we don't realize reality doesn't kneel to our expectations. It could be 30+ reasons blended together and dependent on each individual scenario.
Exacly my thought while watching
I think the uncanny valley is probably a combination of causes, rather than just one specific theory
I agree entirely. I don’t know why people always try to find one, wholly true answer in any issue.
Yeah, like each one probably reinforces the other one, which probably magnifies the disgust
@@jedimastergriswold9680psychology
Exactly, each one can work, the disease theory makes sense, the different tribes theory makes sense, the mimic/ predator theory might make a bit of sense, plus we’re smart, and social creatures, so ofc we’d be scared of that
I feel like the disease and hominid ones work well together
The Doppelganger from the mimic theory is seriously the sickest creature design I've ever seen
This was a perfect mixture of funny and creepy and it left me feeling fascinated. Good job :)
that's a great description of this video,
+1
My theory is that the uncanny feeling arise from the still, almost mask like appearance of the subject. This gives out a feeling that the uncanny subject is unpredictable and as if it is plotting something sinister behind that facade. Just like how some people are afraid of the dark because of the things that could be hidden in it. People feel creeped out by the uncanny subjects because the the seemingly unpredictable actions it may unleash.
It's kind of a secular interpretation of the spiritual theory. But instead what's off is some form of psychopathy or narcissism that communicates anti social tendencies.
Maybe it's to help find psychopaths who mimic human emotions to get closer to regular people
Vsauce explained this part in his video and honestly is makes sense.
I personally think it's the fact our brains are really good at using patterns to recognize a face. Example being like two circles and a line o_o, but it's not creepy bc our brain knows it's not a face. We see it as a face. I think that when something gets to realistic while looking off, it sends mixed signals that confuse the brain and causes fear.
Like that one realistic mario meme
Our brains are basically pattern recognition machines so this sounds pretty right
@@Ithi_bun Yeah!
It ultimately boils down to the fear of the unknown. Our brain HATE not knowing something or something not making sense. A creature that somewhat looks like a human but not really and we dont know exactly what it is or what it does is more terrifying to us than something that we know is dangerous such as a bear or a tiger. Our brains prefer a known danger than an unknown one. I would much rather meet a bear in the woods than one of these mimics because I am well aware of the danger that a bear posseses and what it can do but not the mimic. It is also why humans have a fear of the dark. It is because we do not know who or what might be hiding in it since we have poor night vision, a fear of the unknown. Even in my dreams for example when I meet a wolf or a tiger I sometimes try and fight back but when it is a demon like creature or a creepy mimic like creature I just start running with much greater fear than when a wolf or a tiger crossed my path, and I do not even consider fighting back because my brain is not fully aware of the danger that creature might possess.
Immediately subscribed ! Love the commentary, the editing and…yeah this video was a little hard to sit through cuz of all the go pics but damn u got me hooked.
13:58 „fun“ fact: we used to wear wolves skin to hunt whatever the equivalence of cattle was because we didn‘t know how they‘d react if encountered by humans, but we did know how they reacted to wolves
thats lowkey terrifiying
We WERE the mimics 😭 imagine ur just eating grass and the wolf you and your herd dismissed GETS UP ON TWO LEGS and is HAIRLESS
More like "fun" "fact". It doesn't take a lot of thinking to figure out how dumb this "fact" is.
that lowkey sounds fun to do
I think the other more probable reason is that our hair isnt thick enough to insulate our bodies from the cold temperatures we migrated into. Having evolved for the arid climate along the East Coast of Africa it seems like we didn't need to have fur like other mammals. But moving into regions like Europe which were freezing cold in certain points of the year, we instantly were confronted with the need for warmth. Wolves have evolved to grow fur which can protect them, as have other animals. Of course we then realised "wow that stuff keeps those guys warm lets wear that". Pretty gross imo, but we still do it and unlike those days, we have more than enough power to save ourselves from the cold without hunting animals into extinction, we just choose not to because we are the greatest killer in the history of all life, and our arrogance in our place in nature drives us to feel its right to slaughter and destroy the rest of the animals. We're a pretty sick species all things considered.
The Boo at the start of you showing us the scariest thing is why I subscribed because I like your humor and it made me feel better. It was like gentle parenting like “See? that was the scariest it gets.”
I like how every single theory intro was chill and silly, and then the Mimic Theory comes in like it's a boss level 💀
great fuckin vid my man, i really like both your styles, fast- and slow-paced, just keep it coming my man
"Take a look at this image. What do you feel?"
Smash. That's what I feel.
AAHH HELLL NAHHHH...
SMASH YES WITH A METAL BAT
Not my intentions.....@SimeonHoltzhauzen
smash...in what way?
Excuse me 😭
the type of vids youtube recommends me in the darkest of nights
FR
Watching this in 4 am lel
I think the human like-ness theory is what i find the most believable. Our brain is deeply coded into finding human faces, even when they arent there. This ability is called pareidolia. I think uncanny valley is where our brain tries badly to find a face and when it finds one, it realises that this isnt really a human so we have a slight fear of it. Maybe the brain just tries hard to find a similar creature or thing that fits, but the only thing that matches is a human and this thing is definetly not one, which is new and uncomfortable for our mind.
we often forget that homo sapiens competed with 4-7 other human species in our history depending on your source, so it makes sense we'd have an instinctive dislike of something almost exactly like Sapiens but a little different (Neanderthals, Denisovans, Homo Naledi, Homo Floresiensis, and Homo Erectus to name the major ones). It's like how most dogs instinctively hate other canids like wolves and coyotes IMO
@@amukakuma and imagine how terrifying we were to the other hominids lmao, we are the ones that won
@@smugscribbles6667 Though we did do the badoingle with them (Europeans with Neanderthals and asia/oceania people with Denovians) so that doesn't quite hold up from a historical standpoint.
Then again those hominid species were close enough to us that I'm sure many people didn't have that reaction at all.
i think this is the best theory. humans today have not seen something that looks human but isn't. that alone would scare the shit out of anyone because we are literally the the top of the food chain.
I don't think the phenomenon of pareidolia (perceiving emerging patterns in random stimuli) is part of the uncanny valley explanation.
If it were the case, we would be unsetttled by any kind of stimuli which could be imagined to be a human face. But part of the uncanny valley concept is, that we are just fine with faces that don't look too human.
As you point out, our brains are highly tuned to perceive and recognize faces. But we are also very keen at spotting traits that appear abnormal or 'off'. I don't think our brains struggle to differentiate human faces from look-alikes.
Poorly done cosmetic surgery is a good example. Clearly a human face - but at the same time off or wrong.
I find the disease hypothesis most compelling. It makes good sense to avoid humans which, due to disease appear abnormal.
However, I think another strong factor is the staring gaze most of these faces have. Someone or something looking at you with an intense stare will often be perceived as threatening. Try it out yourself on someone and see how they react.
you did NOT have to jump scare me throughout the entire video💀💀💀(well done👏)
The insticts of this fear is unbelievable, my body reacts to every creepy image shown in the video while i (my conscious mind ig) expected them and wasnt startled of them
Yeah, images of almost human creatures scare more than anything, literally anything. Even the image of the most perfectly designed human killing machine does not come close. I'm not getting any sleep tonight, am I? 😂
It really is fascinating how it's universally instinctual, even when we're fully aware of it happening
This is how I feel when I look at people with plastic surgeries
Hey ... stare into the mirror for sometime. Like look into your eyes for sometime...you will start to feel uneasy after some time... you just triggered your evolutionary memory.... Your brain knows the image of yourself but your deeper subconscious wiring from tens of thousands of evolution cannot connect to it. So it starts triggering. Try this at home. Stare right at your eyes.
Bro really upped the ante with the Mimic Theory Intro. The entirety of the video was more debate-focused and nonchalant. And since you got copyrighted, The Predator Theory and then The Disease Theory Intro was completely goofy and satirical. Then... then the Mimic Theory hit. Damn, dude, that gave me goosebumps! Loved the video btw. 💖
To think that was originally gonna be the Disease Theory intro 💀
the concept of "the stranger" from the magnus archives really delves into this concept well! it's worth checking out (the entire podcast is great but the fears especially. top notch stuff)
"Not Sasha" is also a great example of a mimic that has adapted a method of countering the uncanny valley.
@kiritotheabridgedgod4178 YES
MAGNUS ARCHIVES MENTIONED??
i did my english gcse speech on this!! talked a lot about the uncanny valley too :)
RAHHHH MAGNUS ARCHIVES IN THE WILD WHOOOO!!!! (i love tma)
again a a great youtube video (made my day)
16:16 i think it's because they look like they don't fear you at all like other creatures and it's just our instinct that makes us uncomfortable because we don't know how it's gonna attack or smth
Nothing in humanity's "recent" history can explain the "mimic theory". There has never been something that could appear human enough to trick us. It almost certainly comes from something much earlier in our evolution.
I remember theory about rabies. It makes some sense. The danger appears human, but it's hijacked and up to hurting us.
@@eliskaslovakova3897this is probably the most likely reason honestly, there are diseases out there that fuck you up bad (disfigurement wise) but also make you go crazy against everybody else which would make it (atleast early in our evolution) beneficial for others to point that out
Or is that just what they want you to think... 😏
Sorta unrelated, but I find it super creepy that birds can mimic humans. You can imagine some prehistoric birds crying out for mommy like a small child, luring the humans in so they can rip them apart with giant talons or whatever. Or like, what if a Terror Bird could talk, fuckin no thanks. Maybe the visual uncanny valley is related to that auditory one. Actually, now that i'm thinking of it, I saw this vid talking about uncontacted tribes in the amazon making animal calls (like certain monkey sounds and such) as a way of covertly communicating. You'd hear a spidermonkey call, but it was just _slightly_ off, and you know that means you're being watched by some scary fucking people.
I have heard this theory before, but I quite literally think it is because of Neanderthals. We evolved to be weaker than Neanderthals, and they look (roughly) like us, so I get why we would be afraid of them. They are human, but not at the same time. Larger head, broader cheekbones, more muscular faces, much larger frame, but close enough that they could ride the line of 'human'.
6:20 having diddy at the end of the predator theory montage is so cray cray 😭
I'm gonna touch u
love how the suicide crisis hotline is linked to this video
While it may be unclear what underlying evolutionary factors helped shape the uncanny valley, Im pretty sure i know what it scares ME specifically:
It feels intentional.
It CHOOSES to let you stop and stare at it. Rather than hide or sprint in for an all out attack or even surround you, something deep in the valley wants to be seen. I think thats what messes with me the most, honestly - its a level of malicious, cruel intelligence that feels distinctly unnatural and horrifically human at the same time
wow
This feels the kost accurate
Or it really thinks it's passable enough that your stares aren't skeptical. It doesn't think you'd see through its disguise. It's that confident...
@@TheGoldenDunsparce see, but that feels weirdly clueless (to me at least). Its like when your dog stares at you afterwards tearing the trash open as if they didn't do it lol "oh me? Nonono, me human, no eat you", and that makes it more funny than scary imo
With the intentional trickery tho, it KNOWS you know, but its confident that it has you now and this is the last thing you'll see. I find, like, faces in doorways to be similar - its sadistic, its happy to be seen, and it doesnt matter what you do. It just like watching for now, as you realize. Thats just me tho
I like the way you're mixing the slow creepy style and the fast funny style. Keep that up
i love this funny little way of talking abt creepy stuff, i like to watch creepy content but some chanels, SURPRISINLY, gets me creeped out. this way i can learn and not have nightmares before going to sleep. nice video!
My theory is that since our brains are so good at recognizing faces, even when there aren't any, when we notice something off we immediately think about predators.
Like that "Face" that I saw moving a second ago, could just be the pattern of a wolf skin that I glanced at and my brain just told me "Yep, that's a face, a fucked up one but a face nonetheless" and then goes "Wait... a fucked up face?" and then fear comes in.
Yea why at forest video we look at that pale face and dont look away
The 3 main theories of uncanny valley is predators,sickness and ability to read intentions.
Sickness:
•Pale skin
•Unfocused eyes
•Uneven teeth
•Struggle to move
We automatically avoid sickness we don't understand
Reading intentions:
•The symptoms I just listed are common in cannibals hence the first thought is typically "this person wants to eat you"
Finally now that we know this thing is a predator it's given the predator response:
•Keep your eyes on it. It may pounce.
•Does it hunt in packs?
•How fast is it?
Remember that throughout history, cannibalism was extremely common as was plague. You don't know how desperate someone can get. When there's no food, but your body does.
There is theory, that is hopefully wrong - that there did exist something dangerous, that resembled human. So, those who could differentiate between that thing and normal human, survived, everybody else died.
11:07 GREAT COVERNUP FOR YOU BEING A MIMIC! UH HUH, YOU *DEFINITELY* GOT SICK!
I feel like the mimic theory (might) make the most sense to me because if we all take a look at nature, we've seen flies that look like bees; insects that look like sticks, leaves, and tree barks; animals that disguise themselves by changing color, etc. And most of the time(in my opinion, so I could be wrong), it was more so that prey used mimicking or disguises to confuse/trick predators. But who is to say that predators can't disguise themselves to trick the prey?
The problem with that theory is that humans are the absolute worst creature in the history of this planet for something to evolve to specialize at hunting. We're pack animals, making it rather difficult for a species to reliably prey on lone individuals. We're able to kill creatures many times our size and strength while outside of its attack range by throwing pointy sticks at them. We're also vengeful, and will hunt down entire groups of any creature that manages to kill one of our own.
This all makes it very unlikely to me that something would fall into such a niche when they could just hunt deer or something instead. It's just far too risky to be successful for the milennia it would take to evolve into something that looks like us. It's like something evolving to specifically hunt wolves, but 10x riskier.
That said, it is my personal favorite out of the theories just because of how creepy it is.
i dont think thats likely as humans werent a very widespread species until fairly recently. A predator that evolved to solely prey on us would struggle to find food, especially if they need to be strong enough to easily overpower a human which is a very large creature.
Having a single prey species is kind of a bad adaptation overall. The reason mimicking works for prey is because it will work on most predators which makes it very versatile but the reverse isnt true.
@@propaneman9579 Maybe we are pack animals because of the uncanny valley itself, the best way of stopping a creature like this is staying together. Of course there are 10.000 other reasons for why we benefit from staying together, but this might be a factor. The first instinct that we have after being scared is seeking other people after all. Perhaps we weren't always like this, and this scenario would make it very easy for a mimic to pick us off. Even then its still very unlikely but i don't think its totally impossible
@@propaneman9579also I want to add that there are very few to no animals that have evolved to be predators of other predators exclusively. As nutritients move up the food chain a lot is lost. As the deer eats the grass, he gets 100% energy, as the wolf eats the deer, he only gets 50% of what the grass offers the deer. And if you eat a wolf, you barely get anything. It’s not quality meat, not to mention parasites and disease which are often carried in wolf or bear meat
And they do. The flashy colours of the tiger are flashy colours to us, bright organge, pearly white, and bleak black.
For its prey, however, they see a limited colour spectrum and the tiger pelt looks green and blends with the enviroment
i really like your way of making videos. it’s spooky but funny too i feel like it matches my personality too because im like that irl 😟
I like to think it’s a combination of a few things. 1. Is that humans weren’t always the top of the food chain. There was a good chunk of our history where we shared the top with others. So basically a predator/ prey instinct.
2. Is the illnesses theory. Mainly because we tend to become a little more hyper aware around the sick in order to protect ourselves.
3. Is definitely the mimic theory but not in the way you think. In recent years all forms of media have shown things that look human but aren’t that always hunts humans. This triggers our fear that we are not the top of the food chain. Even if it’s not real it makes us paranoid.
4. Because they are creepy looking I think thats number four what do you think.
P.s. you spelled pray wrong
@ yes 100% also thank you I’m a bit dyslexic
On that last one we are basically scaring ourselves
@@TweakStudio he's correct, 'prey' is the correct word for this situation, 'pray' is wrong
@KatimationsYT uhhh no
this editing style is fire, the transition and intro to the religious theory is so cool
Whats the song on it if i may ask?
@TheSaviorOfUs the song is from a game called hong kong 1997
@@KUNAIBABE Oh dang i remember watching weird ass documentaries on it like 5 years ago and i knew it sounded familiar, thank you man i appreciate it 🙇♂️
@TheSaviorOfUs all good!
4:53 is wrong. The devil in the Bible is actually human like, and was the most beautiful angel in heaven
yeah, i was thinking the same thing. lucifer doesnt actually have crimson skin, a tail, and horns-thats a myth
unfortunately it's a very common misconception
@sleepyhououin-2036 Indeed it is
In islamic myth he becomes mad ugly after falling from heaven
Imo this is debatable, the reason Angels are so beautiful is because they roam in Heaven, Gods light and love; but Satan is outside of that, what is to say that among all of the other punishments God gave Satan, taking away his beauty was not among them?
Haven’t even watched the video yet but I’m concerned about the self-Unalive crisis helpline warning.
corpses! i think we evolved to be afraid of corpses!! but not from diseases.
you see, death is a scary concept, and we as a species have grown to fear it! since someone can’t be sure what CAUSED someone to die nearby them. it could be ANYTHING. i also think that it could be our incredible pattern recognition! if we’re able to see faces in regular items (i.e. cars), then we’d EASILY be able to pick out features of something that is inhuman within a human-like face.
Make perfect sense
Spawn is a Soulless Corpse.
@ what?
that and also a lot of these uncanny valley type images have disproportionately large eyes, dilated pupils, large mouths and wide smiles (snarls), bursts of sudden movement (predated by stillness), and are directly staring at you, which are very common in predators stalking their prey
Goddammit I just commented smth similar only to scroll down and realize I'm three days late
06:16 no way you put diddy in the predator theory
It’s not a theory
@@Arksurvivalevolved98888 yes it is?
this was nice. your jokes lighten the mood when talking about something scary
Bro I love this video so much everything about it is amazing. Can't wait to watch more of your video's!!
MY 6YRS OLD BROTHER WATCHED THIS TO GET OVER HIS FEARS BUT NOW HE CANT SLEEP
Rip lil bro he bit off to much than he can swallow, it’s ok gang just start throwing hands with the monsters
You’re a terrible brother
@@AdlerPostHC not his fault bro
@ broo i am not the one who bought a ipad pro for a 6 years old
@ fact part tht is funny i am 15 years old and my litle brother has a ipad better than mine all i have is redmi pad se 8.7
In rare cases some ancient human tribes and hominids didn’t kill, go to war with, or threaten other hominids, but instead straight up hunted and ate them, wearing their bones and certain body parts to invoke fear in other tribes
Plausible since current stone-age level tribes in countries like Papua-New Guinea are doing exactly that to this day
That mimic theory intro freaking killed me bro.
Same I’m usually not badly affected but I had too look away from the screen for that bit
Great video Ro-Meister :]
I still believe it to be other hominid theory/ other humans. Something you're not considering is if you were being hunted by another person they wouldn't be clearly visible sure a Neanderthal doesn’t look that off putting but imagine you were just going to bed and you see something that looks like a face off in the distance. I feel because the brain has parts dedicated to reading faces and interacting with humans when you see a face in a place it shouldn't be it triggers that feeling of something wrong.
The problem with this theory though is that it's possible that Neanderthals went extinct because we cross breed with them, which would explain why people carry small traces of Neanderthal genes. I'm not specialized in this stuff so don't take my word for it. (Eg: the theory conflicts with another theory which would make the other theory irrelevant.)
This can also apply to the mimic theory. Since it uses vaguely human faces, it makes sense to develop a flight response to danger which you do not recognize or do not know. *We fear the unknown* and that we are used to looking at faces when we socialize or just go about our lives as we live mainly in societies which also forces us to socialize. When something looks vaguely like a face, we recognize it as incomplete, lacking information, therefore it comes down to fight or flight, but the human nature of fearing what it doesn't understand or know, makes us lean into fear and avoiding whatever it is, so we can possibly reach other people to investigate as a group, or observe it from a safe distance or high ground where we know we are isolated from it.
It's 3 am this comment had no need to scare me this much
I personally think the Hominid theory is pretty compelling for the reason that, compared to other species, other hominids were definitely much more of a threat to us than other species because we occupied very similar niches. For the same reason us humans are racist towards other groups of humans, its from an in-out group, prioritizing your own kind for an evolutionary advantage.
I definitely think its very believable we evolved to be somewhat off-put by non-homo sapiens features, though a thing to note that doesn't entirely mean we were too scared of them to not form relationships like we definitely did. Its more that I believe its a trend than a definite rule, hell the uncanny valley itself doesn't even affect everyone, or even all fears. When it comes to stuff that evolved into our psyche its never really cut and dry like saying "all humans are afraid of snakes because we evolved to fear them," since humans have a capacity to be desensitized or learn to not fear things. I just kinda think this could be a somewhat good reason to explain why many of us have this fear, saying that our brain just defaults to a fear response when we see something not completely human feels like a cop out since its not always true.
That being said I do also think it is a completely reasonable explanation as well, like an evolved Better Safe than Sorry measure whenever we don't know whether to fear something or not because its novel.
Trick is you wouldnt need neandrethals for this theory. Ordinary homo-erectus is more than capable of being scary in the dark.
I can understand your skepticism at the disease theory at the earlier part of the video, but i think it's good to remember that fears can be triggered in more abstract ways. Like how someone's fear of death can be triggered by the vastness of space or the deepness of the ocean. So it could be that uncanny faces that don't look like any actual diseased or dead people still in some instinctual, mechanical way (if that word makes sense in this context lol) still trigger the same things that seeing an actually horribly diseased or dead person might.
I really love how you combine funny and scary stuff in your videos. You deserve more recognition.
I woulda guessed its just down to our brains recognising something that should be very familiar and we automatically know everything about- BUT, its not QUITE right, and that triggers unease. And the reason it most effects us in relation to human like things is because several large parts of our brain is specifically designed just for recognising human faces and distinguishing them from each other -
so when these deep seated automatic face recognition areas of the brain trigger in these cases but they are not quite right, and we can tell faces do NOT look quite like whatever this is.. uncanny valley.
I think your format is amazing, and you just need to keep doing what you're doing, and do what YOU like. People will definitely follow!
16:36 IS THAT DIDDY?
Yes lol
Okay, I wanted to be spooked by the start of the Mimic Theory, but that song is an absolute banger, so I just started jamming out a little bit while looking at various horror images. 10/10 music choice, but I am SO glad that I decided to not watch this at 2 AM
Ong it goes so hard, almost belongs to a horror movie trailer about a detective investigating Uncanny Valley instances
Best Scary Reddit Stories compilation ever. Can’t wait for more!
why did I watch this alone in my room with my pc's screen as the only source of light while everyone is sleeping in the house
We shall never know...
Lock your doors and windows
Run
I can’t tell if this video is supposed to scare me or make me laugh and I’m loving it
im so easily scared man i nearly jumped during the mimic theory intro
the intro to the mimic theory is top notch
The disease theory is the most logical, but the Mimic theory is the most fun.
My exact thoughts
I've always believed that the uncanny valley is rooted in a deep-seated fear of the animated dead. Even in CGI humans, it's often the eyes that give them away they carry that unsettling, lifeless quality. No matter how perfect the rest of the model is, the eyes often remain disturbingly vacant. Things that fall into the uncanny valley tend to have that "dead eye" look, and when they move or seem to move it feels like watching a corpse that hasn't decomposed yet, brought to life in a way that defies nature. For me its the same with fear of the dead or morgue etc.
6:24 Is that Diddy?!
I mean.. was he wrong?
It is the PREDATOR theory
No its my uncle
@@GreyysInferno No, but I didn't say it was wrong
@@Nobody.............. How delightful
This is the first video of yours I’ve ever watched and I really enjoyed it! I myself prefer slower paced videos especially for creepy stuff. I need time to LOOK and absorb whatever creature you’re showing
2:02 why did that actually scare me
the ghost or flight
My brain took 2 business days to react to it
'Cause you're a big baby
@@cumulo25 or maybe they had volume set to max 'cause the "BOO" was really loud
This is CRIMINALLY underrated. The joke about the pterosaur just earned you a like and sub!
I feel it ties back in to our general fear of the unknown. Like "Why does something feel off" COULD be why it's scary. Think about every creepy video, or image we've seen. The first thing we do is look for the context or meaning behind it, and that could be the major reason why we find the uncanny valley scary. That's why when we look at the same scary/uncanny image, we don't get the same feeling we had when we first saw it. I do think it could be a mix of the disease and mimic theory, but it depends on certain contexts
Amazing video bro keep going!!
This video is very good. It really looks like a passion project and it's balancing horror and humor pretty good. Great job man, this deserves a sub!
late at night is the absolutely best time to watch this ofc
Exactly, else you won't absorb every single thing he says😂
Just stumbled onto this channel and shocked it doesn't have more subscribers.
Keep up the great content man!
as someone not affected by the uncanny valley at all, this video was absolutely fascinating to watch and see all the different theories people put forward as to why it such a disturbing thing. like i always shrugged it off bc i truly dont understand why people are so creeped out by it, but some of the theories have put it into perspective for me