The Uncanny Valley Explained - Why Robots, Dolls and Mannequins are Creepy The Uncanny Valley is a common unsettling, anxious, creepy feeling people experience when androids, robots, dolls, mannequins, video games and animations closely resemble humans but are not quite realistic enough. The phenomenon is a consideration in a number of areas of design including robotics, video game art, training simulators and 3-D animation. Designers work hard to avoid the Uncanny Valley or exploit it to elicit