Exploring The Relationship between the Uncanny Valley and Paranormal Belief

Since completing my PhD in 2015, I stepped away from primary research in this area and concentrated on my main role managing student feedback for The Open University. However, in 2024, I began a fascinating new programme of study with The School of Parapsychology, and recently completed their Advanced Diploma.

I found that my previous experience with experimental and cognitive psychology was an excellent grounding for the type of questions we explored: after all, both the uncanny valley and parapsychology sit at the edges of mainstream psychology theory and practice, so in many ways I’m well-versed in sitting in a liminal space and asking the kinds of questions that aren’t easily answered!

My studies with SCOP have opened up an exciting opportunity to combine my interests in this area, and I’m delighted to be able to announce that I will be launching a new collaborative research project in Summer 2025.

My goal is to bring together two fascinating questions: who is most likely to experience the uncanny valley effect, and who is most likely to hold different types of paranormal belief, and conduct some novel research looking at the relationship between these two areas.

The study will involve an online questionnaire, will be open to anyone over 18, and will be open for a number of weeks.

This page will be updated when the data collection starts, and if you’re reading this, I’d love it if you’d take part. To receive a notification, please do consider subscribing, or coming back soon.

Dr Steph Lay, June 2025