In the original Milgram Experiment of the 1960’s, subjects were told to give another subject electric shocks for wrong answers to a test. The subject who was supposedly being shocked were unharmed but would provide aural feedback of shouts of pain. The administering subject, despite these shouts, would continue to give electric shocks.

Professor Mel Slater of the Catalan Polytechnic University has recreated this experiment but this time he uses a virtual woman to be the victim of electric shocks. So, the subject knows that the person receiving the electric shocks is not real. Yet, despite this knowledge, many of the subjects still exhibited discomfort as the virtual victim protested and shouted. Some subjects even considered being withdrawn from the study even though no one was being harmed.

The professor concludes that there is still a part of our brain that does not recognize that the virtual character is not real. Now tell that to the avatars on Second Life…

via:: MedGadget