According to Norways new minister of International Development.
It seems that the Norwegian minister has been a long time player of RPGs, was a championship D&D player and has had some wonderful experiences playing LARPs. He is cited as saying :
LARP can change the world, because it lets people understand that humans under pressure may act differently than in the normal life, when you’re safe.
That sounds to me like a good working definition of LARP – letting you understand how you may act when you are not safe. In fact I know of lot of players who keep reverting to playing characters in a similar way simply due to this factor of experiencing a foreign pressure.
You can learn more about the Ministers views by reading the interview in imagonem
Click here for the English Language Version
Click here for the longer Norwegian Version
Many thanks to Elin Dalstal who made me aware of this via a Google+ post.