Akvod said: I have a really random hypothesis.
Constantly in nature animals are faced with things that look very similar, but not quite the same as something. Baby spiders pretending to be flowers, Lions camouflaging in golden grass, etc.
Not being able to recognize small differences, and recognizing them as threats can lead to death in nature. So that instinct maybe carried out to us? This animal instinct of recognizing fakers? |
Another take: we also instinctively dislike deformed life-like human features, probably because they hint at possible (genetic) diseases.
When an artificial image is far enough from realism we might tag it "human" with our conscious mind, but it's an abstract process. So this gut feeling doesn't kick in.
I guess that when we get too close to realism our subconscious also starts treating it as a human, gut feelings and all. In this new mode, we're overly sensitive to even slight deviations from the norm in appearance and behaviour.