This link has been bookmarked by 21 people . It was first bookmarked on 21 Feb 2008, by Yukon syl.
-
17 Sep 10
-
03 Jul 09
-
Seeing your altered self in the third person can actually change the way you behave in real life.
-
-
15 Feb 09
-
14 Dec 08
-
You don't have to visit Bailenson's Virtual Human Interaction Lab, or wear a helmet, to play in disembodied space. In our increasingly digital society, video games, chat rooms and social networking sites let us make friends, solicit dates or attend classes, all in the guise of a digital self. Ordinary folks spend prodigious amounts of time as avatars, or digital alter egos, in online role-playing games like World of Warcraft or Second Life.
-
Bailenson's lab group studies the social mechanics of this virtual existence, in which identity is malleable and things are not always what they seem. The rules are different online, affecting everything from how we treat one another to how we comprehend ourselves, and blurring where our real identity overlaps with the virtual one.
-
Experiments in his lab have shown that what you experience as your digital doppelgänger lingers after you power down the PC—and bleeds into your real-life identity, at least for a while. His Stanford research team has begun exploring how those virtual experiences might be used to tweak who you are, for better or worse.
-
While their interests have radiated in several different directions—looking at identity transformations in contexts like gaming, negotiating and advertising—their central hub is the idea that people can interact differently in virtual worlds than they would face-to-face.
-
This change in self-perception happens remarkably quickly. “It only takes 90 seconds of exposure to a mirror image transformed in age, height or gender to cause drastic changes in behavior,” Bailenson says. Why are we so easily tricked by the way we look? Possibly because, unlike donning a costume or putting on makeup in real life, in cyberspace your avatar is your whole self-representation, the primary identity cue that tells you how to behave socially.
Here's the kicker: none of the subjects in these experiments could guess how he or she was being manipulated. People are wired to believe what they see, even in virtual reality, where everything one senses can be manipulated.
-
Bailenson is doing “super-important” work because “he's not just studying what happens while you're in there, but what happens afterwards,” says his colleague, communication professor Cliff Nass.
-
Indeed, through his study of avatars, Bailenson is exploring what Nass dubs “ancient Greek stuff”—the very essence of self-understanding. “When I am in digital space, there is some point where it's clearly me, and some point where it's clearly not me,” Bailenson says. “How far can I push and transform before it's a completely different person? It really raises the questions about what it means to have an identity and what it means to be.”
-
Studying virtual reality as a widely used medium, rather than as a high-tech toy, is still in its infancy. The field is rife with wild ideas and uncomfortable questions, and that's what makes it exciting to explore. “The goal of my work is to understand the consequences and opportunities of a world in which people are using digital media more and more. How does that really affect who we are on a social level?” Bailenson asks.
-
-
10 Nov 08
-
03 Nov 08
-
18 Aug 08
-
25 Mar 08
-
01 Mar 08
-
21 Feb 08
-
20 Feb 08
Brian C. SmithSeeing Is Believing
Maybe virtual reality isn't just a game anymore. Maybe it's a way to build a better you.
BY KARA PLATONI
ILLUSTRATION BY MONDOLITHIC STUDIOS -
10 Feb 08
-
18 Jan 08
-
13 Jan 08
-
12 Jan 08
-
eclipse phase“It only takes 90 seconds of exposure to a mirror image transformed in age, height or gender to cause drastic changes in behavior,”
-
Alex HalavaisSome interesting work going on here, related to the way people see their avatars, among other topics.
-
11 Jan 08
Howard RheingoldBailenson's lab group studies the social mechanics of this virtual existence, in which identity is malleable and things are not always what they seem.
Would you like to comment?
Join Diigo for a free account, or sign in if you are already a member.