In a first-of-its-kind bizarre experiment, a London man has decided to live the life of "someone else" for 28 days in a bid to get answers on the age-old 'nature vs nurture' debate.
Mark Farid is set to recruit an 'avatar', who will carry a camera with him 24/7 and record his life for 28 days, which will be watched by Farid through an Oculus Rift. While he does that, people will feed him the exact food that his 'avatar' is eating, the Independent reported.
Farid has made it explicit that the he expects to get some insight into the debate over whether it is "nature or nurture" that causes the person to be what he really is. By living a life of another person – in this case seeing everything that his participant does 24 hours a day – he seeks to find if he will start thinking like them too.
According to the Independent, the 28-day period was chosen because it is commonly believed that it takes about 21 days for new habits to form.
Throughout the experiment, the only contact Farid will make will be with his psychologist whom he will meet for an hour. The psychologist will be watching him in silence and volunteers will help him feed the food that his participant is eating.
Experts have said the virtual reality experiment could be "extremely disturbing."
