Psychologists find that Second Life mirrors First Life
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Research has found that many of the peculiarities and unwritten ‘rules’ of real-world interpersonal interaction are mirrored in virtual worlds.
Nick Yee and his team found similarities in how women-women, women-men and men-men behave, especially around the concepts of ‘personal space’ and ‘eye contact’ — and can read his paper (pdf) to find out more.
This is leading a number of academics to consider using the virtual worlds, like Second Life, to conduct research into human ‘real world’ behaviour. Not just psychologists but also economists are buying property and experimenting, according to Cory Ondrejka, Linden Lab’s chief technologist (Linden Lab is the company that created and hosts Second Life).
Already Second Life has been an experimental site for studies into learning, and simulations of the hallucinations suffered by schizophrenics.
As Shel eloquently repeated the other day, commenting as he was on the psychological phenomenon of disassociative identity and its implications for marketers:
More solid thinking about why communicators need to stop making excuses or simply dismissing these new environments where people and brands are interacting. If we can’t provide counsel on communicating with our audiences when they happen to be in these environments, somebody else will, and we will become that much less relevant to our employers and clients.
Which is why I spend so much energy being involved and trying to understand Second Life. We may be 5+ years away in Australia from any major business involvement, but Australia is a land full of innovators and early adopters, and like the many companies I have helped to understand the intricacies of web marketing, they are going to want someone to hold their hand when they first market their offerings in the virtual world.
I’m meeting up with Kami Huyse and a few PR friends of ours tomorrow at the Second Life CommsCafe; Kami is likewise finding her way around a virtual environment that is a fascinating mirror of the ‘real’ world, complete with its opportunities for creativity, its opportunity to create a business that generates real, ‘first world’ money, its virtual educational establishments, its virtual retail establishments and its virtual sex establishments.
Read more of my posts about Second Life. Hat tip to Nature.com
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