Humanoid robots are often experienced as unnerving, a psychological phenomenon called the “uncanny valley.” Past work reveals that humanlike robots are unnerving in part because they are ascribed humanlike feelings. We leverage this past work to provide a potential solution to the uncanny valley. Three studies reveal that “dehumanizing” humanoid robots—stripping robots of their apparent capacity for feelings—can significantly reduce the uncanny valley. Participants high on trait dehumanization (Study 1) or experimentally instructed to dehumanize (Study 2) reported lower feelings of uncanniness when viewing a humanoid robot, an effect mediated by reduced perceptions of feelings. We replicate these effects in an experimental field study where hotel guests interacted with real humanoid robots in Japan, and reveal that dehumanization reduces the uncanny valley without decreasing customers’ satisfaction (Study 3).

人形机器人常常让人感到不安，这种心理现象被称为“恐怖谷”。过去的研究表明，类人机器人之所以令人不安，部分原因是它们被赋予了类人的感觉。我们利用过去的工作为恐怖谷提供了一个潜在的解决方案。三项研究表明，“非人化”的人形机器人——剥夺机器人明显的感受能力——可以显着减少恐怖谷。高特质非人化（研究 1）或实验指示非人化（研究 2）的参与者报告说，在观看类人机器人时，他们的诡异感较低，这种影响是通过减少对感觉的感知来介导的。我们在一项实验性实地研究中复制了这些效果，其中酒店客人与日本的真实人形机器人互动，