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VR Study Says 40% of Us Are Paranoid
Roland Piquepaille writes "UK researchers have recently used virtual reality to check if people had paranoid thoughts when using public transportation. Their VR tube ride experiment revealed that 40% of the participants experienced exaggerated fears about threats from others. Until now, researchers were relying on somewhat unreliable questionnaires to study paranoid thoughts which are often triggered by ambiguous events such as someone laughing behind their back. With the use of VR, psychiatrists and psychologists have a new tool which can reliably recreate social interactions. As the lead researcher said, VR 'is a uniquely powerful method to detect those liable to misinterpret other people.'."
Maube I am being paranoid here, but 40%????
That would explain a lot of the stupidity going on with terrorism and other tools uses to manipulate the public.
Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
I'm sure these statistics are going to be used against us by the government to push some new laws to will limit our freedom.
Paraonia is an opinion. If someone's laughing right behind you, it's 100% normal to wonder if it's about you. That's basic social interaction and everyone who's paying enough attention SHOULD be concerned. If you completely ignore it or assume it's not about you, you're a sociopath. The morons that ran these experiments probably started with the basis that nobody should be worried about anything ever unless they're being attacked by a tiger or something. Apparently they forgot that if I take one step towards a bird without even looking at it or intending to eat it, it flies away. It's not paranoia, it's normal.
Google's Super Secret Search Algorithm: SELECT @search_results FROM internet WHERE @search_results = 'good'
It's kind of silly to report things like this. How'd that study go?
Pollster: Mind if I ask you some questions?
Person: Sure.
Pollster: Do you like sausage?
Person: Yeah, it's good.
Pollster: Patty or link?
Person: Patty please, something bothers me when it's in the casing of-
Pollster: Are you afraid I'm going to kill you?
Person: I... what? Are you?
Pollster: Thank you for your time.
-------------
Just because you're not paranoid doesn't mean they're not after you - Kurt Cobain
A lifelike VR simulation is likely to be more creepy than reality because of the "Uncanny valley" effect
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncanny_Valley
Aberrations have appeared in my destiny prognostication engine!
This is Britain they're talking about. If you live in Britain today and you're not paranoid, you're crazy.
First of all, what pretense was given to the test subjects for the experiment? Obviously you can't tell them "we're going to see if you're paranoid", so what did they tell them? The very act of being in an experiment where you're put in a VR environment is likely to affect behavour and the way you interpret people.
Secondly, put this in context of the location used for the experiment. A VR reproduction of the London underground? A place where you're crowded by people, a place which in all honesty does have a reputation for being a haven for pickpockets (whether that's deserved or not I don't know), and oh yes, one other thing - the site of the last major (successful) terrorist attack on Britain. Gee, do you think any of this might make people a little more wary when put into that environment for an experiment?
Some of this is addressed in TFA of course, but it doesn't correspond to the sensational headlines this peice has been getting in tabloids and on the Internet. Being somewhat cautious in that particular situation is a world away from the headlines implicating that 40% of us are clinically paranoid all the time.
Spelling mistakes, grammatical errors, and stupid comments are intentional.
REALLY have the world against them.
It seems to me that it would be impossible to extrapolate this VR study to real life. I mean, you strap on virtual reality goggles, and are presented with a scene from riding the tube (subway). It's like a video game, so of course you think the characters in it are about to pull out an AK47 and start shooting at you. Plus you are doing it as part of some experiment. What are you told before you strap on the goggles?
But in a an actual ride on the tube, you would be thinking about something else -- you wouldn't be watching all the people, trying to figure out what is going on, as you would during some VR lab test...
Deconstruct the State
1- Sell tin foil hats at subway stations
2- ?????
3- 40% Profit!
home
40% of us are paranoid, but the other 60% *know* Roland does need to be taken out back and shot.
I don't get cautious around most black people, but you better believe I get cautious around ones that look like they've bought into the thug culture. Is that paranoid? How do I know that they aren't in fact some wannabe gangbanger? Saying "don't judge a book by its cover" toward people is irrational. Appearances are one of the most effective ways to gauge what sort of person you are dealing with.
It's a *virtual reality* subway ride. The other passengers are AI. The carriage contained neutral computer people (avatars) that breathed, looked around, and sometimes met the gaze of the participants. One avatar read a newspaper, another would occasionally smile if looked at. A soundtrack of a train carriage was played. Even if none of these participants have *ever* played a video game (which would obviously tend to prime them for something nasty coming up), this sounds creepy just from the description.
People who will feel perfectly normal taking a subway ride with human beings who occasionally meet your gaze or smile, or even talk to themselves.. will be royally spooked if you replace those human passengers with Uncanny Valley inhabitants: not human enough to fool you, but human enough to seem like an animated corpse.
The article completely ignores this effect. It could be useful research -- one can find out useful information about people with the ability to put different people in identical situations -- but it's absolute nonsense to say "wow, 40% of people have paranoid thoughts on a simple subway ride". Go figure, but virtual reality and reality are not, in fact, the same.
The more repressive and invasive a government or other powerful entity gets, the more paranoid people become.
I don't get cautious around most white people. Being a US academic I'm surrounded by them. They are my friends and colleagues. However, in every city I've lived in except Los Angeles, I have had whites yell "nigger" at me as they drive by in cars. In three places spanning a dozen years, drunken young white male students have challenged me to fight (tried to provoke an excuse to beat me); so far, I open my mouth, they see I'm intelligent, and they go away.
These white men look like any thousands of white men I've seen all my life. Appearances count, in my case, for absolutely nothing.
I wonder, how may times have you been accosted by a black, gangbanger lookalike or otherwise?
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The study mentions "exaggerated fears" of the threats from others. Sure, it pays to be a bit overly-cautious with strangers on public transportation. That doesn't translate into "extreme, irrational, psychotic, they're-all-out-to-get-me" paranoia... I think "mistrust" is a far more accurate term.
Love many, trust a few, do harm to none.
George Orwell/Eric Blair was British. I think its safe to assume that was the primary reason he chose England. After that I would actually put forth that the UK was the least totalitarian power in Europe and especially so given the recent history at the time of the writing (1948). If he intended to chose a society where one would be 'justifiably paranoid', the UK would have been a very odd choice given the other nations he had available to him (Communist Eastern Europe especially but also Franco's Spain, the recently fallen fascist Italy or Japan, etc). I'm pretty sure you couldn't be more wrong.
Or Feminisation, as this was done in the UK. Shame on you for paying attention to instincts which protected your particular history of DNA for millions of years to the present. The government says you must not resist your mugger, your assailant, your attacker. Sit there and take it or be branded mentally divergent.
Don't trust anyone under thirty.
But in a an actual ride on the tube, you would be thinking about something else
Perhaps velociraptors? In that case at least there are some solutions.
Bitter and proud of it.
Didn't they have a few bombs go off not long ago? Paranoia? I think not.
Where I live, public transportation is the domain of the lower socio-economic classes (as opposed to places like London, New York, etc. where its use is more widespread). Our fear is of the (sadly common) incidence of transit riders off their meds.
Have gnu, will travel.
This is the UK we are talking about after all...
UK 'unsafe, dirty and anti-family'
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/2980028.stm
I don't even live there and I think the same
If you persistently tell people they should be afraid -- they WILL be. It matters not at all whether they SHOULD be.
Witness that, lacking both better things to do and the ethics to do better things, our American news media plays up every negative incident as OMG the sky is falling, run for your lives!! Consequently, ask the average American (or any of our detractors) whether they think violent crime is out of control in the U.S., and they will uniformly declare that it is -- despite that the *actual* incidence of violent crime has been dropping steadily for almost two decades.
See stats at http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/gvc.htm
~REZ~ #43301. Who'd fake being me anyway?
I have to go. They're listening
That's funny. I was thinking if xkcd came up here, it would be referencing this one.
I know what you mean about nature out to get you.
Whenever we go hiking, I'm always the only one the mosquitoes target for a blood meal. Also, since it's the females that bite, that just reinforces my paranoia that all female are out to get me.
I'm also still paranoid about my inevitable alien abduction and anal probing (Ouch! Maybe they work for the IRS...)
So the definition of Paranoia is clinical, political, helpful, fearful all at the same time. That's more or less the point of England nowadays.
Allow me to expand for our newer PC (politically correct) and city-bred youngsters.
1. We have established ourselves at the top of the food chain on land.
2. Competition of the same species has resulted into numerous conflicts on Earth. Geographical and climate differences seem to back up sociological diff's, thus establishing a basis for conflict: after all, who wants to be wrong?
3. No threat groups: company picnic, or similar like a LUG.
You may not know all of the people there, but they all seem to fall into a 'known' category, where on the tubes/subway, it is an unknown category that requires som awareness, some observation, and some training/knowledge on how to deal with the situation. YMMV
4. Why are sports and other forms of competition so popular (business world, etc.) if not for #2 above? It's our nature...society and civilizations would have you forget we were programmed to climbing to the top of our perceived food chain.
We will conquer and exploit the oceans and seas of this world sooner or later.
5."...becomes "law enforcement" or maybe "military training."
Circa 1977-79, some of our military training trumps all in a conflict.
My experiences with USA law enforcement has left me with less than sterling respect. (with the exception of the Tishomingo, Oklahoma/Murray State College Sheriff Department.
The top end of the department was made up of old, experienced war horses of various conflicts and filled out with recruits by way of the old guys.
Thoroughly capable and professional outfit.
I helped them set up a 'Hogan's Alley' type reactive Close Quarters Combat course, and acted as instructor for several months, then enough qualified, good people were able to shove me out. (no, I am 'old as dirt', a good student SHOULD usurp his teacher/master!- no bitterness except from resenting getting old!)
I served with the US Army from 1977-1981 in and around Berlin. We were a 6 man team that were tasked to exfiltrating political, industry, and science bigwigs from E. Berlin into W. Berlin so they could be sent on westward.
My primary MOS (Military Occupational Specialty) was a sniper. but as did all members of my team , I had multiple secondary MOS's. Mine were : Close Quarters Combat, Small Arms, Medic, and Demolitions.
As any combat vet can attest, having been there, done that, and wore the damned tee-shirt out...VR subways are an adrenaline letdown, as are the real thing.
Down With Slashdot BETA!!! I've been around the corner and seen the oliphant; you can only abuse me from your perspecti
i mean come on, dr. freeman on a subway...