次の文章を読んで設問に答えなさい。[各段落の冒頭にある数字は段落番号です。*印のついた語句は注を参照しなさい。]
①
Your favorite coffee shop is crowded with people who are stressed out, and you are standing shoulder to shoulder with them in a slow-moving line. The pushing and elbowing of the crowd worsens your severe social anxiety. You start gasping for air, your heart quickens, and you want to run away.
②
You force yourself to stay, however. You manage that achievement only because you are not actually there. You are living this experience through your avatar, an animation that represents you in a virtual environment. In reality, you have never (a) made it to the counter during the morning rush, but you can get there on a computer. The experience of watching your digital look-alike smoothly reach the front of the virtual line and order a pretend drink is real enough, research suggests, to help you learn to cope with similar situations in the actual world.
③
Recent studies have demonstrated that watching an avatar that resembles you can influence your thoughts, feelings, and actions, which is called the “doppelgänger* effect.” Doppelgänger avatars allow you to see yourself perform a desired action, live out a fantasy or take on a slimmer, fatter, or older form. For instance, you can help people make smarter decisions about money. In a recent study, a psychologist, Hal Ersner-Hershfield, and his colleagues created look-alike avatars of 50 participants whom they had digitally aged to 70 years old. Each user “went inside” his or her avatar and (ア) peered out onto the virtual scenery from the perspective of a new self. Thus, researchers made some participants look in a virtual mirror to acquaint themselves with their senior selves while they answered questions known to enhance identification with an avatar, such as “What is your greatest fear?” and “What is your greatest hope?”
④
Participants were then told to (b) allocate $1,000 to four purposes: a special occasion, someone else, a short-term savings account, and a retirement savings account. Those who had seen their older selves opted to put twice as much into their retirement account as those who had not seen their aged selves. In a similar study, exposure to senior counterparts reduced participants’ prejudices against older people, ( Y ) the attitudes of subjects who did not meet their digitally aged doppelgängers.
⑤
In addition to giving people a new perspective, doppelgänger avatars may be able to modify behavior (イ) by providing substitute reinforcement. Jesse Fox, a communications researcher atOhioStateUniversity, and her colleagues created avatar doubles for 69 college and graduate students who then watched their artificial selves eat in a virtual-reality environment. The avatar sat in front of a bowl of carrots and a bowl of chocolates. When the avatar ate chocolate, it got fat, and when it snacked on carrots, it slimmed down.
⑥
Afterward, participants filled out a survey, which was placed next to a bowl of chocolates. The female participants who witnessed their avatars gaining and losing weight and felt absorbed in the scenario consumed less of the available chocolate than did those ( Z ) avatars did not change or who did not buy into the virtual experience. Many of the women thought the visual reinforcement had altered their attitude and behavior. “Even though I really dislike carrots,” one said, “I liked watching myself get thinner, so watching the weight ( あ ) take ( い ) ( う ) me ( え ) ( お ) eat more healthily.”
⑦
Avatars can also be used for less virtuous purposes, such as making us feel more favorable toward a product than (ウ) we might otherwise be. Already commercials feature actors who look, sound, and act like the people in the community (甲) they target, in order to get consumers to envision themselves as owners or users of a particular product. A doppelgänger avatar might be an even more powerful way to accomplish the same goal.
⑧
In 2010 researchers at StanfordUniversity’s Virtual Human Interaction Lab decided to test the power of avatars to influence consumers. They asked 80 students to log on to a website and watch virtual (c) endorsements of imaginary soft-drink brands. Some brands appeared in advertisements with text endorsements only. Others were shown with a picture of a stranger or a picture of the participant as a spokesperson. In a survey asking which brand participants preferred, most chose the one that appeared with their own image. This finding suggests that advertisers might benefit from (エ) appropriating static images of individuals from, for example, social network sites, in order to personalize their marketing.
⑨
The most appealing spokespersons of all, however, might be fully controllable doppelgänger avatars of the type featured in extremely absorbing virtual games. When Stanford students entered such a virtual setting featuring their doppelgänger in a soft-drink T-shirt, they highly endorsed the product on the shirt, (d) provided they could control and manipulate their digital doubles. Such studies indicate the degree to which our opinions may be (e) vulnerable to influence by anyone who decides to take and manipulate our digital image and put it before us. “Our identities are (f) on the verge of becoming that mixture of our physically real and virtual self or selves,” says sociologist Sherry Turkle of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
(Adapted from Samantha Murphy, “Your Avatar, Your Guide,” Scientific American Mind, March / April, 2011)
[注] doppelgänger 分身
I－A 下線部(a)～(f)の意味・内容にもっとも近いものを次の1～4の中からそれぞれ一つ選びなさい。
(a) made it to
1 cleaned up 2 left 3 reached 4 served at
(b) allocate
1 assign 2 attribute 3 spare 4 spend
(c) endorsements
1 collections 2 judgments
3 objections 4 recommendations
(d) provided
1 in accordance with the ratio that 2 in spite of the fact that
3 on the condition that 4 reporting the information that
(e) vulnerable to
1 beneficial for 2 defenseless against
3 immune to 4 unaffected by
(f) on the verge of becoming
1 about to become 2 accustomed to becoming
3 similar to becoming 4 unlikely to become
I－B 波線部(ア)～(エ)の意味・内容をもっとも的確に示すものを次の1～4の中からそれぞれ一つ選びなさい。
(ア) peered out onto the virtual scenery from the perspective of a new self
1 checked out the latest digital environment from a technological point of view
2 glanced at the realistic world of seniors from a young person’s perspective
3 looked away from the artificially constructed world for strangers
4 surveyed the virtual setting carefully from the viewpoint of an elderly person
(イ) by providing substitute reinforcement
1 by creating a less interesting environment for their digital selves
2 by demonstrating the value of exercising regularly
3 by making them excited about controlling others intentionally
4 by offering positive and negative scenarios through their alternative selves
(ウ) we might otherwise be
1 we might be if avatars were not used
2 we might feel if we had not gone shopping regularly
3 we would be if we had different avatars
4 we would feel if avatars were used for more virtuous purposes
(エ) appropriating static images of individuals
1 editing motion pictures of customers with their permission
2 ensuring proper handling of personal data
3 forming favorable impressions of the target group
4 using still images of persons without permission
I－C 空所(Y)と(Z)に入るもっとも適切なものを次の1～4の中からそれぞれ一つ選びなさい。
(Y)
1 as compared with 2 as confused by
3 in competition with 4 in contact with
(Z)
1 among 2 of 3 who 4 whose
I－D 第⑦段落にある太字二重下線部(甲)が指すものを次の1～4の中から一つ選びなさい。
(甲) they
1 actors 2 avatars 3 commercials 4 consumers
I－E 破線部の空所(あ)～(お)に次の1～5の単語を入れて文を完成させた時、(い)と(え)に入る単語の番号を記入しなさい。ただし、同じ単語を二度使ってはいけません。
watching the weight ( あ ) take ( い ) ( う ) me ( え ) ( お ) eat more healthily
1 loss 2 made 3 place 4 to 5 want
I－F 以下の[A]～[C]の英語の質問に答える時、もっとも適切なものを次の1～4の中からそれぞれ一つ選びなさい。
[A] Why does the author start the first paragraph with an episode about a virtual coffee shop?
1 It is because the author aims at encouraging readers to enjoy their morning coffee to reduce their stress.
2 It is because the author wants to make readers feel as if they were vividly experiencing something through an avatar.
3 It is because the author wishes to awaken in every reader a feeling of luxury from a simple pleasure in an everyday situation.
4 It is because the author wishes to introduce in advance the disadvantages of avatars that will be discussed later in this passage.
[B] In the eighth paragraph, which of the following is NOT mentioned in the three types of advertisements created in the 2010 research at Stanford University?
1 advertisements only with a sentence or short passage
2 advertisements with a picture of an unknown person
3 advertisements with a picture of the participant
4 advertisements with a picture of the researcher
[C] In this whole passage, which of the following does NOT describe an avatar?
1 a digital double of a person
2 an actual living person
3 an animated representation of a person
4 a virtual look-alike of a person
I－G 本文の意味・内容に合致するものを次の1～6の中から二つ選びなさい。
1 Research suggests that a virtual experience through an avatar is effective in helping those who suffer from social anxiety improve their behavior in the actual world.
2 Ersner-Hershfield’s study indicates that those who had watched their digitally aged avatars became more carefree with their monetary plans.
3 The researchers at Ohio State University reported that 69 female subjects who had doubted the virtual reality setting of gaining and losing their weight did not improve their eating habits.
4 In terms of sales promotion, good-looking strangers featured in commercials are more effective than the doppelgänger avatars of consumers.
5 According to the research conducted at Stanford University, advertisers have difficulty in influencing people if they exploit the avatars of a target group.
6 Seeing a digital doppelgänger can change your way of thinking for better or worse.
I－H 本文中の太い下線部を日本語に訳しなさい。
Those who had seen their older selves opted to put twice as much into their retirement account as those who had not seen their aged selves.
