A person who chooses to be taller digitally becomes a more aggressive negotiator in daily life. Someone who dons an inventor’s lab coat online is more creative at real-world meetings. Adopting a character digitally, the researchers found, can essentially change a personality, in a turn that has come to be known as the Proteus Effect. [More]
I remember as a child putting a towel on for a cape and trying to leap into the sky. I affected a different personality, too. That's what children do.
Fortunately, I wasn't immature enough to jump from the roof. The basic distinction between fantasy and reality was still there.
I can' say the same for some of the people who can't distinguish between virtual and reality that this article foresees. Seems like a pretty good way to develop a new strain of psychosis...
3 comments:
Remember when Robert Young, appearing in a commercial, had to say "I'm not a doctor. I just play one on Television."?
Nothing new about this psychosis. It's just coming out of the proverbial closet.
No, actually, there is psychology behind this one.
When I was in high school, and rather unassertive, I took the advice of a column that advised me to start signing my name boldly and confidently with a flourish. What that does is introduce a periodic mental suggestion into your life -- every time you sign your name, you are subconsciously reminding yourself, "I am becoming a bolder person." I can see how every time you see your own "digital persona" (icon, game avatar, whatever) you are subconsciously prompted to become more like it. Of course, it doesn't grant you qualities that you are constitutionally incapable of developing, it just changes your attitude.
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