Stanford's Virtual Cow Experiment Lets People Experience Life as a Cow

Posted on August 14, 2013

A virtual cow experiment at Stanford lets users experience life as a cow headed for the slaughterhouse. Users put on a virtual reality headset and get down on all fours like a cow. They control a cow avatar that appears on a screen above them. The Telegraph reports that the technology "enables humans to empathise with cows destined for the slaughterhouse."

Stanford researcher Joshua Bostick says they were trying to see if the technology would make participants empathize with the virtual cows. He says some people planned to think twice before sitting down to eat beef after the experiment. Others liked the experiment, but were not going to modify their beef consumption at all. Take a look:

ANIMALS
COWS