They did what?

Monkeys shown animations

WHAT DID THEY DO?

Researchers from the Society for Neuroscience in Washington, DC, showed a group of rhesus macaque monkeys a series of animations featuring monkeys rendered in varying degrees of detail.

WHY DID THEY DO THAT?

In robotics, the term ‘uncanny valley effect’ is used to describe the revulsion and feelings of unease that arise when we are confronted by a robot or a computer-generated figure that appears to be almost, but not quite, human. The effect is also seen in monkeys, which makes studying their social behaviour using animated monkey faces particularly difficult.

WHAT DID THEY FIND?

The monkeys were unconcerned when confronted with wire-frame avatars, but avoided looking at greyscale or furless ones, indicating the existence of the uncanny valley effect. However, the monkeys were comfortable when shown a highly detailed furred monkey avatar, and behaved towards it comparably to a real monkey.