Meanings
- uncountableThe quality of a robot or other artificial entity to be perceived as more than an object, but as a social agent, like a pet or a person.
2015, Daniela Hernandez, Let’s not ban sex robots just yet, adriancheok.info We interact with them in ways that we don’t with inanimate appliances. (...) We do this because robots have what experts call “social valence,” meaning we ascribe to them human qualities, like personality.
1 more example
Finally, robots, more so than other technology in our lives, have a social valence. They feel different to us, more like living agents.
2014, Ryan Calo, Robotics and the Lessons of Cyberlaw in: California Law Review, Vol. 103, No. 3, pp. 513-63 (2015), page 532
Origin
From valence in the sociological sense of value.
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
social valence. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/social%20valence
“social valence.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/social%20valence. Accessed November 5, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “social valence,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/social%20valence.
Source: social valence on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.