Men able to experience violence toward women via VR

[BertieBotts]

A friend sent me this link the other day, I thought it was interesting, what do you all think?

Link to article here

The basic premise is that there has been a virtual reality program developed where the person experiences what it is like to be a woman in a violent situation (I believe it is a single slap in the simulation) - they are trying to measure empathy or something like that. I just wondered what you thought? My friend was really interested and said that they should show it to teenage boys at secondary school! But my view is it's not ultimately helpful - an abusive man isn't going to hit his wife because he believes he doesn't care, it's about control and fear - surely having experienced it, that's just going to cement it in his mind?

totally bogus IMO. has no chance of replicating the dynamics of fear and lack of respect that underlies this sort of thing.

Technology is great, but has it's severe limitations. Like here.

Ha my thoughts exactly WRT the slap, dittany

I think it's a bit stupid really. Considering a lot of blokes play computer games where they run over prostitutes, I imagine seeing a girl getting a slap might just provoke them to get some beers in and enjoy.

If this was brought in I can just imagine "but I know how it feels to be beaten up/raped/harrassed, and it wasn't that bad!"

Oh dittany, "a great big SLAP might be just the thing after having his arm stroked" - hahahahaha. Maybe they could just fit GTA with a giant smacking hand, and every time you "score" by murdering a woman, it would give you a ginormous thump.

Something tells me they can dish it out but they can't take it.

Yes I thought the arm stroke/slap was a bit stupid too - not exactly an extreme situation, is it? And I missed that it was a woman - I thought it was a man in the simulation doing the slapping.

They could call it a virtual slap, so if it hurt they'd know it was just evidence of their extraordinary technology-assisted talent for empathy.