Researchers Find Racial Bias In Virtual Worlds

schliz writes "Real-world behaviours and racial biases could carry forward into virtual worlds such as Second Life, social psychologists say. According to a study that was conducted in There.com, virtual world avatars respond to social cues in the same ways that people do in the real world. Users, who were unaware that they were part of a psychological study, were approached by a researcher's avatar for either a 'foot-in-the-door' (FITD) or 'door-in-the-face' (DITF) experiment. While results of the FITD experiment revealed no racial bias, the effect of the DITF technique was significantly reduced when the experimenter took the form of a dark-skinned avatar."

Comments

Re:FITD vs DITF

[Estanislao Mart�nez]

The term 'racist" carries with it strong connotations of ignorance and bigotry, and it is unfair to call someone who it honestly attempting to be fair and equal with all people regardless of race racist if they still possess some small racial bias outside a strictly academic field.

Racism is too important a problem for so-called "white" people to approach it narcissistically by reducing it to the purity or impurity of their own personal, private intentions. This whole "don't call me a racist" line that you're pushing here is disingenious; it recasts the issue of racism so that instead of focusing on the objective problems and obstacles faced by people of color, it becomes about white people's attitudes and intentions. So instead of having discussions about the unequal allocation of funds to schools, or investment into inner city neighborhoods, the discussions become about stupid things like how supposedly Trent Lott does not bear any ill will toward black people. Give me a break.

Re:FITD vs DITF

[z80kid]

So instead of having discussions about the unequal allocation of funds to schools, or investment into inner city neighborhoods, the discussions become about stupid things...

Those things have nothing to do with racism. Nobody is taking things away from those people because of the color of their skin. Your complaint isn't that whites are oppressing these people. Your complaint is that whites aren't paying for these people.

Racism is too important a problem for so-called "white" people to approach it narcissistically by reducing it to the purity or impurity of their own personal, private intentions.

No. "Racism" is just an accusation people like you toss about to try to extort a handout from others.

It's taken years, but "white" people are finally starting to get used to it. Yeah, keep screaming racist at the top of your lungs. I don't care what people think about me, I'm still not buying your lunch.