The Uncanny Valley: Implications for Facial Plastic Surgery

From briefly glancing at someone's face, the eyes rapidly glean a staggering amount of information. We quickly make an aesthetic judgment as well as categorize the face by gender, ethnicity, age, and familiarity. It is therefore not difficult to understand why most patients considering facial aesthetic surgery are so keen to avoid what is referred to as the “operated-on” look.1 This may refer to any number of things including unnatural changes of the face that may be the unwanted artifacts of surgery or, in some cases, the intended results.2 Casual observers tend to describe a vague eeriness when looking at an individual who looks radically different after cosmetic surgery. This …