Hacker News Reader

> In the Stanford lab, researchers have found even a single experience can affect people. In one test, researchers found that test subjects who had just cut down a virtual tree used fewer paper towels when cleaning up a spill after the experience than subjects who hadn’t cut down a tree.

Oh great. More priming studies.

View on HN

It's testing whether the virtual reality experience can 'prime' people for a behavior change. It was intentional priming and I don't see an inherent flaw there. The experiment does sound weak though. How reliable is the control on the amount of spilled, how accidental it seemed, and the timing for each group who had different events preceding the spill? Also, what does the behavioral difference matter if they do not carry that behavior beyond the single experiment or if the ones exhibiting that behavior were already more paper towel conscious without the VR. I find the article really weak because of a lack of substantial examples, and the examples given lack detail.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com