Virtual Worlds Drag Racism Into the 21st Century
Can racism actually exist in a world inhabited by avatars, such as 'Second Life' and 'World of Warcraft?' Researchers at Northwestern University seem to think so after conducting a series of social manipulation studies.
The researchers used two different social manipulation techniques known to work well in the real world. The so-called foot in the door (FITD) approach asks a simple favor of someone that can be quickly and easily accomplished making the person more likely to agree to future requests, while the door in the face (DITF) approach makes a more complex and time consuming request at first, making the person more likely to agree to a simpler follow up request.
The really interesting (and disturbing) results came when researchers decided to add another variable to their experiment -- skin tone. They set the skin tone of their avatars to the extremest light and dark ends of the allowable spectrum then approached random users to make their requests. When using the FITD method, 75-percent of people agreed to the second request, and 80-percent agreed when the DITF method was employed. The catch was that these results were for white avatars only. When the researchers used darker-skinned avatars, only 60-percent agreed to the second request of either approach.
It's both disturbing and absurd that racism has been dragged into virtual worlds, places where people can be anyone they want. It's unclear whether black avatars are being discriminated against because the users are perceived as black, or because the users are choosing black avatars. We thought the Internet was supposed to break down barriers and bring people together -- guess we were being a little overly idealistic. [From: Ars Technica]
