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Effect of Virtual Avatars On Real-Life Behavior
Betsy Carroll writes "The Stanford research group on virtual teams discusses how the appearance of one's avatar in virtual worlds has an effect on real life behavior in an NPR interview. The researcher they speak with focuses on the concept of vicarious reinforcement for changing behavior. They also talk a bit about identity issues surrounding the avatar and the 'real' physical self."
Anyone else ever get annoyed at audio or audio/video news? I'm at work, can't listen to those.
Transcripts, much more helpful
They seem to be saying that seeing a skinny avatar of yourself can condition you to see that weight change is possible & attainable.
Seems to be they're heavily implying that thinspiration is a good idea.
I'd like to see the followup studying looking into longterm issues of body dysmorphic disorder or compulsive exercise.
[Fuck Beta]
o0t!
I'm sure that the stereotype is familiar enough to /.ers. Most of us know those people who have been playing roleplaying games for so long that their personality becomes the character that they play. There are the Vampire players who really believe that they are walking undead. There are the D&D players who eventually get into Wicca and other "majik" kind of stuff to the point where they believe that they can cast spells and talk to spirits. I think it's basic psychology that anybody who spends any significant amount of time pretending to be someone else will eventually manifest behavorial changes.
What's this say about the MMORPGs? You know, Many Men On Line Role Playing Girls...
Picture yourself as a thin girl with big boobs..?
Ask not what you can do for your country. Ask what your country did to you
I'm pretty sure that's called "priming". Like in all those self help books that tell you to look into a mirror and say "I'm a winner, I'm beautiful, I'm good at math, etc." And it really does work.
[Fuck Beta]
o0t!
Though I can't HTFA as I'm at work, I'm sure it raises some insightful points. When I create an avatar or online persona, I tend to imbue the characteristics into it that I wish my RL self was stronger in (in this case mostly social awareness and assertiveness). Giant penis jokes aside, does anyone else try to use their alter-ego as a role model?
I'm going to be modded funny! I'm going to be modded funny! I'm going to be modded funny!
*crosses fingers*
Developers: We can use your help.
It worked.
Not enough people are mean enough to reverse-mod you.
However, something like "insightful" applied to your post comes close to a paradox.
My first Journal Entry ever, in 8 years! http://slashdot.org/journal/365947/aphelion-scifi-fantasy-horror-poetry-webzine
Nothing is worse than not being able to get the news beyond the headline because you don't want to stream video. I don't want to waste 5 minutes for a video, I want to waste 20 seconds skimming articles and making assumptions, like I do on /.
"I only speak the truth"
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I play Second Life. Every day, I now have the urge to fly to work, turn myself into a giant penis, and grief the shit out of every newbie I see.
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
Not quite priming-which is basically a memory task where you learn to associate a word/object with another, kind of like associating the content of an array cell with it's index (A[0]=B, you teach yourself to think B when you see 0). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Priming_(psychology)
"I'm going to be modded funny" doesn't 'cause any associative links to be made (which is how psychological priming works-it's Cognitive-Behavioral where you learn to associate your mental image with your wishes and behave based on the new associations) in the brain of the mod-either he mods you up or he doesn't.
open source modern art: laser taggi
Crushed potato chip crumbs are much nicer in that recipe.
You are welcome on my lawn.
The question is, what if your Avatar in your VR is a Undead in WoW? Will you then be Skin and Bones... without the skin?
I understand what the article is talking about, but this will only work for people with certain mindsets, and who use the VR interface (whether a real VR, or a avatar based system such as SecondLife or ActiveWorlds) in moderation. Using the VR extensively will mean you are giving up time in Real life that could be used moving around and instead settling into a sedentary state.
All things in moderation.
As a last note, I'm not even going to get into the case of where a male has a female character as an avatar and tries to look like them....
That is actually a very interesting conclusion. It really is true that just "thinking happy thoughts" does make you more likely to achieve them, but for naturally cynical people this is easier said than done. If I try to sit there and talk myself up, it usually backfires because the cynic in my just can't help poking holes in everything I'm saying and I end up talking myself down instead. It was easier when I believed in god, because it acted as a way of suspending disbelief.
What they are saying here is that just the act of imagining yourself as being better, even in the context of an artificial world that has no bearing on reality, has some of the same effects of imagining yourself being a better person in the real world. That seems like it would be a very useful technique. It is probably also part of the reason that MUDs can help asocial people be more social. I had always assumed that it was just because it sidestepped one's fear of external expectations/judgment, but the fact that it also bypasses internal judgment as well is something I hadn't thought of. Oh, and playing MUDs will help me be a better person IRL, so there naysayers:)
I'm going to be modded insightful! I'm going to be modded insightful! I'm going to be modded insightful!
*crosses fingers*
... the avatar who lives on cold pizza and pop and lives in his mom's basement.
Have gnu, will travel.
They also talk about how picking an attractive avatar leads to more confidence in the real world an hour later.
So if I pick Sauron as an avatar, I'll be 9 feet tall and able to bash a dozen men with my mace shortly thereafter?
"I am the king of the Romans, and am superior to rules of grammar!"
-Sigismund, Holy Roman Emperor (1368-1437)
Yes, but only after you explain to everyone (for the millionth time) that Sauron is the evil monster/force/eye, and Saruman is the wizard with the white hair. No, not Gandalf, the other one.
What shitty name picking.
But how do you keep normal people's eyes from glazing over as you explain all that??
http://vhil.stanford.edu/projects/
Out of the three links to "research" provided, only one links to an actual published paper (the other two are to research papers not in peer reviewed journals).
So, yeah, in a lab with undergraduate students, some of this stuff may be true. Out in the real world, with real adults working 9 to 5 jobs, with family and kids, maybe not so much....
I played a female girl char on a MMORPG for many years.
I think it has made me less aggressive, more care about looks, more feminine.
Sometimes I want to be a girl, because they're so pretty, and I want to have boobs.
I'm going to be modded redundant! I'm going to be modded redundant! I'm going to be modded redundant!
*crosses fingers*
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