Believing You Are Very Good Or Evil Boosts Your Physical Capabilities

Research by Kurt Gray, a doctoral student in psychology at Harvard, shows that a person's capacity for willpower and physical endurance increases if they perceive themselves as good or evil. "Evil" acts in particular give a person a large boost in physical strength. From the article: “'People perceive those who do good and evil to have more efficacy, more willpower, and less sensitivity to discomfort,' Gray said. 'By perceiving themselves as good or evil, people embody these perceptions, actually becoming more capable of physical endurance.' Gray’s findings run counter to the notion that only those blessed with heightened willpower or self-control are capable of heroism, suggesting instead that simply attempting heroic deeds can confer personal power."

I told you! I told you so!

[jeffmeden]

Gray’s findings run counter to the notion that only those blessed with heightened willpower or self-control are capable of heroism, suggesting instead that simply attempting heroic deeds can confer personal power.

See? You can will yourself to have heroic physical capabilities! Batman *isn't* bullshit! He may have bought his fame, and all his cool gadgets, but that doesn't stop him from willing himself into a superhero. Thank you, modern science, for seeing the light.

Paladin

[Stargoat]

If that's the case, then why is Paladin the worst 3.5e base class?

Re:Playing your alignment?

[Pojut]

We had a buddy back in the day who made an attempt at a Lawful Evil character. It's much harder than you think.

Re:I told you! I told you so!

[hedwards]

That's been established for a really long time. Winding up in texts from the Bhagavad Gita to The Art Of War. And frequently gets parodied in western pop culture. It's somewhat tied into the great strength of chimps. Chimps don't have really have any more muscle than a similarly sized person, but so much of our muscles are used to control precise movements that we lose out a lot on strength. Similarly by clearing the mind of doubt we can cease fighting with ourselves and become far more powerful and coordinated than we normally would.

The reason why is simply that being careful tends to cause for weak performance as a result of the excess thinking it requires. Which is why everybody from martial artists of old to marines will train and train and train until they can do without thinking.

Re:Midichlorian testing to come soon

[commodore64_love]

I really hate that scene. Lucas dropped that line to try to move the "force" from being Fantasy Fiction magic (and quell complaints that Star Wars is not science fiction). But it still doesn't explain what "the force" is supposed to be. Are the midichlorians a bunch of tiny wizards ala Harry Potter casing "force" spells everywhere? It's still just nonsense.

This is why I hate Fantasy that tries itself off as "a possible future" science fiction reality. No. No. No. I'm sorry but there will never be magic in our universe..... maybe in some neighboring universe, but not in ours

For more info, I recommend this excellent video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JDNrnpefGio [youtube.com]

Re:Playing your alignment?

[jbeach]

I don't think the Nazis were even lawful evil, since they were quite ready to violate their own laws if it suited them. But they weren't chaotic evil - that would be more like, say, Manson. "Neutral Evil" might better describe them...

Perhaps the best description of Lawful evil might be Jim Jones, and various other leaders who perish with their cults. They are following their own laws, even to their own doom.

Of course, where D&D steps out of touch with reality (besides, you know, with every single fantasy element : ) ) is that people almost never - and I'm tempted to say never - really view themselves as evil. Even if they may claim they're "evil", they always have some sort of justification for their actions. They're evil because "society is evil", or "God is evil", or "my parents made me evil." There's never anyone in real life who's like "I freely chose evil, just because I dig it and it's fun." That only exists in fictional characters like Hannibal Lecter.

Re:Playing your alignment?

[suomynonAyletamitlU]

I'm reasonably certain that the women who find less selfish men unappetizing are the ones who spend their whole days trying to get "bought"--with too much makeup, revealing clothes, spending too much time thinking about fashion and aesthetics, etc. Those same people have been focused on a lot by media because, well, they're the most photogenic, and easy to portray with bad actors.

To be honest, nice guys deserve better. Hopefully, they will someday learn to stop listening to hyped salespeople in relationships, as in any other market.

Re:Playing your alignment?

[jahudabudy]

I've read before (and found it to be true in subsequent observation) that part of the reason assholes get the girl and nice guys don't is that a lot of "nice guys" have the idea that projecting sexual desire/sexual desirability is "not nice". Probably b/c the methods most young men use to project sexual confidence and desire ARE rude, boorish and assholish. So the nice guy equates sexual aggressiveness with the undesirable methods of expressing this he sees in his peers when he is first developing, and basically emasculates himself in order to be non-threatening (an "asshole" as he sees it). They put themselves out there as a sexual non-entity, so are seen that way by women. Assholes don't care about being non-threatening; they want what they want and don't bother to hide it. So the asshole makes a woman feel desirable, the nice guy makes her feel comfortable.