Peiwen NM3225's List: NM3225 10 articles and 10 multimedia

• What is Virtual Embodiment?
• This concept refers to the lack of physical presence in the virtual world. Removing one’s self from the physical restraints of the body, the Internet presents an opportunity to completely rely on the mind and imagination in constructing online identity.
• this very disembodiment allows all traces of discrimination to be removed
• Internet presents an opportunity to participate in a judgement and discrimination free experience, where users can feel comfortable in engaging in any form of behaviour or experience they desire. This is particularly important to those who feel their real life is restricted by physical impediments such as disability, gender, race, sexuality etc.

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• publicizing October 25, one month from today, as Gender Freedom Day in Digital Worlds.
• SL enables a lot of people to exaggerate sexual dimorphism and practice gender-role exaggeration
• What isn't fine is when those people publicly attack and condemn others for making different choices.
• Attacking people for presenting their gender in the way that suits them
• At the same time, digital worlds allow unprecedented scope for gender freedom, for safe havens for for gender and sexual expression. Second Life enables many to experiment, to find safe expression, for identities that may not be possible or tolerated in parts of the atomic world.

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• Real-world behaviours and racial biases could carry forward into virtual worlds such as Second Life
• 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.
• Participants who fulfilled the small request are expected to be likely to see himself or herself as being helpful, and thus be more likely to fulfil the subsequent larger request.
• As the researchers expected, DITF participants were found to be more likely to comply with the moderate request when it was preceded by the large request, than when the moderate request was presented alone.
• But 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.
• However, the DITF technique is said to reflect a psychological tendency to reciprocate the requester's ‘concession’ from a relatively unreasonable request to a more moderate request, and thus is affected by whether the requester is deemed worthy of impressing.
• “But people exhibited the same type of behaviour -- and the same type of racial bias -- that they show in the real world all the time.”

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• Decisions in the real world may be affected by experiences in a virtual one.
• For example, people who watched their avatars - digitized characters based on a person or thing - overeat and then gain weight are more likely to adopt a weight-loss plan in real life.
• Feeling more connecting to your future self might help people make better decisions
• These avatars have a lot to do with how we perceive other people and how they perceive us
• Behavior can also be altered by changing how attractive an avatar is.

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• In this unique new dating world, the most important thing to consider is what happens when two strangers perceive each other as a friend. Many choose anonymity of meeting electronically thinking the distance provides a cushioning from the usual pains of the relationship.
• All too often, the image of the perfect mate is projected, and transferred. What appears to be the perfect soul mate is actually an illusion.

• How Thieves Who Mine Social Networking Sites Can Steal Your Personal Information
• One of the games Lockwood's son was playing on his Facebook page offered extra points in exchange for filling out an application that asked for a Social Security number. He provided the information, filling out a total of seven loan applications

• internet is that it offers the opportunity for people to experiment with their identity.
• One way to do that is to switch one's gender to see how the other half lives
• more males switching gender than females.
• difficult for some men to explore within themselves what society labels as "feminine" characteristics. These males may rely on the anonymity of cyberspace to express their "feminine" side which they feel they must otherwise hide
• Adopting a feminine role in cyberspace may be a way to draw more attention to themselves.
• Some males may adopt a feminine identity to investigate male/female relationships.
• ales lend more assistance to females, so they progress faster in the game.
• To find out how other females act with men.
• To practice "writing" a seductive male character.
• difficulty gathering followers as a female persona. Once she switched to a male character, she immediately became more successful in building and running her group.
• To experience "power" that she had not been able to experience in real life.

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