| Abstract |
| As virtual space activities become more common, human-virtual agents such as avatars are more frequently used instead of people, but the uncanny valley effect, in which people feel uncomfortable when they see artifacts that look similar to humans, is an obstacle. In this study, we explored the uncanny valley effect for celebrity avatars. We manipulated the degree of atypicality by adjusting the eye size in photos of celebrities, ordinary people, and their avatars and measured the intensity of the uncanny valley effect. As a result, the uncanny valley effect for celebrities and celebrity avatars appeared to be stronger than the effect for ordinary people. This result is consistent with previous findings that more robust facial representations are formed for familiar faces, making it easier to detect facial changes. However, with real faces of celebrities and ordinary people, as in previous studies, the higher the degree of atypicality, the greater the uncanny valley effect, but this result was not found for the avatar stimulus. This high degree of tolerance for atypicality in avatars seems to be caused by cartoon characters’ tendency to have exaggerated facial features such as eyes, nose, and mouth. These results suggest that efforts to reduce the uncanny valley in the virtual space service using celebrity avatars are necessary. |
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| Key Words |
| Uncanny Valley Effect, Celebrity, Face, Avatar, 언캐니 밸리, 연예인, 얼굴, 아바타 |
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