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Virtual Superpowers Translate To Real Life Desire To Help
sciencehabit writes "You don't have to be Superman to help those in need, but you might be more willing to do so if you get a taste of his powers. When subjects in a new study strapped on virtual reality helmets, half of them were given the ability to fly around a simulated city, while the others sat passively in helicopters. Some were allowed to merely explore the city from their aerial vantage points; others were told they needed to find a missing diabetic child and deliver his lifesaving insulin. Regardless of which task they performed, the subjects granted the superpower of flight were more likely to help a researcher pick up spilled pens after the experiment was. The results have researchers wondering if our brains might react to the memory of a virtual experience as though it had really happened. If so, we may be able to use virtual reality and gaming to effectively treat psychological disorders such as PTSD."
here.
Must resist urge to post it as a LMGTFY link.
I now understand my overwhelming urge to hunt goblins (for money)!
We could be designing more efficient CPUs, network infrastructures and compression techniques. Instead we're going back to a 20-year old fad with virtual reality? Why?
I'm getting PTSD from the disjointed grammar in the summary
If this is true, we ma be able to do what we have already have proven possible and are already doing?
Someone get me a grant! I need to test the "usage of hookers and blow to make people happier" hypothesis.
No need for the VR hardware BS, just ask a DM / GM about how their players behave after leveling up. In fact you need a correction factor for "3 dimensional thinking" vs "2 dimensional thinking". Think how cranky Kahn was in ST:2 and his legendary two-dimensional thinking.
I think you need to correct the study for happiness, although how you'd do it without bias is a mystery. Its probably easy to half ass it, like most soft sciences.
"Science flies us to the moon. Religion flies us into buildings." - Victor Stenger
For the majority of us, the vast majority of our day involves saying "hi", smiling, putting things in the trashbin, paying for our lunch, holding the door open for someone, thinking about hanging out with friends over the weekend and other stuff which is just plain good. We call it 'neutral', but most of it is good. So when given extra power, we tend to do good things with it...at least at first. When someone wins the lottery or gets a big bonus, they tend to throw a party and buy stuff for themselves AND their friends. Doing nice things makes us feel good. Thinking of harming others is just not pleasant for most of us. Thinking of bad things is not pleasant. I believe we do, however, spend a lot of time thinking about bad things, and so we tend to get this false feeling that everything and everyone else is bad. It's that whole opposite charges attract deal. Because people are so generally good, we have a strange attraction to generally bad things. But generally we're good.
I've sat here and thought about it for a few minutes, and I don't quite understand...
I can kinda understand how giving someone a virtual superpower might translate to someone briefly feeling "empowered" and "superheroic" once they leave the VR, which would cause them to want to help the researcher who spilled his pens.
Could someone explain, however, how you could field this into treating a disorder such as PTSD?
I'd tend to think it would be more appropriate to use against borderline sociopathic disorders, encouraging their sense of empathy.
So the real measuring point of the experiment wasn't until after all the VR stuff. The researcher would "accidentally" drop some pens. Interestingly structured.
Gotta stay hyperaware of everybody and everything these days. If, as I suspect without reading the article, the test subjects were a bunch of college students, then they were probably not yet sufficiently cynical to watch out for that kind of treatment.
Someone accidentally their experiment.
They concluded that actively flying and doing good results in a tendency to do good after the game. I think it is more likely has to do with a spectator/participant frame of mind.
Duhh, just like dreaming, which is a virtual experience? Haven't they shown MRIs of people dreaming (or even THINKING of past events) that show the exact same parts of the brain being used as if they're experiencing something real? What is new in this?
If so, we may be able to use virtual reality and gaming to effectively treat psychological disorders such as PTSD.
Duhh, already exists, has been on news shows for several years now. I saw an updated report very recently, I think on Nightline.
if
"we may be able to use virtual reality and gaming to effectively treat psychological disorders such as PTSD."
then
does this imply that VR and gaming (the violent kind) can cause psychological disorders as well.
But if they can show that virtual reality and games can have a positive affect on the mental state of people, you can't tell me the reverse isn't true.
When someone wins the lottery or gets a big bonus, they tend to throw a party and buy stuff for themselves AND their friends.
Exactly but my thought on reading the article is perhaps it is far more fun to be flying around the city by yourself rather than being stuck in a helicopter (which may have frustrating controls). If so perhaps all this experiment has shown is that when people are happy and content they are more willing to help out. Conversely if you have been frustrated and are unhappy you are probably less likely to be thinking about helping others.
If just 0.01% of people were trying to cause chaos, there would be no stopping them.
Modern societies exist because people are good.
Ockham's razor tells me that the actual explanation is that flying around like superman in a video game makes people feel good, and people in a better mood are more likely to be helpful. If that's the only guaranteed reaction "to the memory of a virtual experience", then I'm not sure how it is going to help treat people for psychological disorders any more than sitting them in front of an Xbox would.
Captcha: unsure
Thank you for being the first person to state the obvious here.
Oh, and let me paraphrase the summary:
We gave one group of subjects strawberry ice cream cones. We gave a second group dry spaghetti noodles.
Afterward, members of the first group were more willing to do us a favor than members of the second group.
Therefore, we conclude that there is a link between strawberries and altruistic behavior.
How can I believe you when you tell me what I don't want to hear?
From what I've read (but don't know first hand), when a woman straps something on to obtain super-powers she becomes a whole different animal.
Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
Would I be more likely to punch the research who spilled pens?
Fuck off. I distinctly recall fucking about 2/3 the women in Hollywood over the years.
(-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
The existence of gankers.
Seriously. Retune the simulation that you have to option to help, or harm, innocent on-line simulated NPCs. Give some of the test subjects superpowers. See how many of them use their powers to ruin one or more simulated persons' day. And then see if those superpowers makes them a happy, smiley, helpful person IRL.
Welcome to the Panopticon. Used to be a prison, now it's your home.
VR might be helpfull but on the other hand it may do more harm than good. The more this technology develops the more problems it will create. We already have people who "live" on the internet and if you will enchance their experiances it might even get worse in the future. So moderation in applying new ideas is a must.
Life has no meaning unless you give it some.
... the outrage can hardly be contained. But when linked to positive behavior, people are tripping over each other to go "of course, obviously". Little bias, perhaps?
I heard about a project where Virtual Reality was used to help burn patients suffer less. They participate in a VR world called SnowWorld Link http://www.hitl.washington.edu/projects/vrpain/ and a report about it http://www.npr.org/2012/02/12/146775049/virtual-penguins-a-prescription-for-pain
The reduction in pain for the patients was significant and consistent. I had first heard of this when NPR was talking about soldiers returning from Iraq and how this helped them deal with pain. It's amazing what this kind of technology can do to help people, particularly those who have been injured. I am sure that VR will be able to help those who suffer from PTSD and who knows what else. The SnowWorld stuff is quite fascinating and worth a read. Do a Google search and you'll find plenty of information on it.
How much stew can you make with NO oysters? The sample size wasn't big enough, and it doesn't seem as if the actual test, the pen-drop event at the end, is meaningful in the real-world.
If instead of pens being dropped, someone had needed help moving out of a 5 story walk-up and owns a $1000+ collection of weight-lifting equipment, (most of which is... wait for it... wait... yep. Weights.) Also, why not, the guy is old, crotchety, and has a couple grand-pianos too.
See how big of a difference the ability to V-leap over tall buildings with a single bound versus V-touring the city in a V-helicopter makes then.
Was the researcher who dropped the pens attractive? Did they account for sexual orientation of the subjects? Did they count the pens to see if while the students were helping pick the pens up, they maybe pocketed a few, meaning virtual superpowers make people more prone to steal...
This study doesn't seem to have any oysters in it, and they've made a whole bucket of what they're claiming is oyster stew. If I weren't revolted by oysters, I'd be mad that the stew appears to be completely devoid of any oysters at all.
From the study: In the super flight condition, participants controlled their flight through the VR environment. In the two helicopter conditions, participants were merely told that they were to be a passenger in a helicopter and their task would be explained once immersed in virtual reality. Their field of view varied only as a function of their head movements (i.e., they did not control translation of the helicopter but could look around the vehicle and out the window). Both flights were through an empty, generic city.
When the researcher dropped his pens, one participant had been actively flying through a VR environment, choosing where to go and going there, for several minutes. The other had been passively seated, with no control over the avatar except to look around.
So, the folks who had just been active moments before continued to be active, assisting with the dropped pens while the folks who had just been passive moments before continued to be passive, observing the researcher as he retrieved the dropped pens.
Had the study been fliers versus walkers with both in control of the avatars, I bet the study results would have shown identical helping behavior.
Moderating "-1, Disagree" is simple censorship. Have the guts to post your opinion.
So, City of Heroes closes down, we lose many thousands of people just a smidge more willing to be nice to each other.