For most of Western Civilization, thinkers and artists and writers have known that the imagination is a powerful legislator of human behavior, and that what people read and watch and hear – even when what they’re reading and watching and hearing is a fiction – has some kind of bearing on how the reader and seer and hearer understands the real world.  That’s why Plato didn’t want people watching too much tragedy in the amphitheater.  Yet, for the last fifty years or so, cultural critics have been essentially saying that we can watch and see and hear music and literature and art without any real negative effect.  Hence, it’s okay to play video games where you mutilate people.  But – alas! – researchers have breaking news that, indeed, this might be a bad thing.

Jeremy Bailenson, head of the [Virtual Human Interaction Lab] and an assistant professor of communication at Stanford, studies the way self-perception affects behavior. No surprise that what we think about ourselves affects the confidence with which we approach the world. What is a surprise is that this applies in the virtual world too [...] What’s more, Bailenson’s research suggests that the qualities you acquire online – whether it’s confidence or insecurity – can spill over and change your conduct in the real world, often without your awareness.

The article is about one writer’s own experience with Second Life, which some of you may know well.  The point is, what you put in your head comes out through your mouth and your hands.  Be careful.  This doesn’t mean you can’t read about violence – see The Bible – but it does mean you should be careful what kind of imaginative experiences you let yourself have.  Fill up with rich, human experiences, not cheap, inhuman ones.