A Virtual Laboratory
Second Life emerges as a new setting for psychology research
Katherine Leitzel, Scientific American Mind, February 2008
Excerpts from the article:
Residents of Second Life...tout their world’s realistic settings and social opportunities. Now a growing number of scientists are beginning to take notice and are bringing their human behavior research into the virtual world.
Second Life allows researchers to study scenarios that they cannot in real life, such as placing a person in someone else’s body, changing the laws of physics or even performing experiments that are otherwise ethically taboo. Communications scientist Nick Yee of PARC, who uses Second Life as his primary laboratory, says that the setting could provide new ways to explore people’s feelings about age, sex or race...
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