Don’t miss the Wall Street Journal’s fantastic article “Is This Man Cheating on His Wife?“

Basic story:

• Real-life man marries real-life woman
• Real-life man’s mother dies, real-life man becomes depressed and takes up Second Life
• Real-life man creates avatar-life man, a younger, better-looking version of himself
• Avatar-life man meets avatar hottie
• Avatar-life man marries avatar hottie
• Real-life wife of real-life man gets very pissed
• Real-life wife of real-life man rats real-life man out for extremely depressing profile in Wall Street Journal

Did I miss any major parts? Well, you’d have to read the whole profile — which I encourage you to do — to find out.

To answer the headline question — in contravention of the Great Law of Headline Question Marks — it seems safe to say: yes. While we’re not talking about a physical affair (if real-life man is to be believed, he’s never even talked to avatar hottie’s real-life counterpart on the phone), it’s certainly an emotional one. And even if he doesn’t feel like he’s cheating, he’s checked out of his real-life marriage in favor of his Second Life one.

This sort of thing is only going to become more common. As online worlds become more realistic, more immersive, and more rewarding (financially and otherwise), people who feel constrained in their real lives are going to turn to cyberlife. I don’t think this is an unmitigated evil — in fact, it may be quite a positive thing (value in life is where people find it, who’s to judge). But, at the same time, it is important for society to get its head around just how “real” these worlds can become to people — just so folks can go in with their eyes open.

The Neuromarketing blog looks at the Wall Street Journal piece and picks out some important points:

• Many people prefer their online friends to their meatspace friends.
• Many people find the “emotional highlight” of their week online as opposed to off.
• People tend to empathize with their avatars to a rather stunning degree; they even react to invasions of their avatar’s personal space as if a wino were falling asleep on their arm on the subway home in real life.

In other words: “From a neurological standpoint, virtual reality IS reality.”