Strong Morals Make Strong Bodies
Having a strong moral viewpoint makes you physically stronger say researchers.
Researchers at Harvard have found that strong moral thoughts can make you physically stronger and increase your overall stamina.
The team conducted two studies. The first gave subjects a dollar and told them to either keep it or donate it to charity. The subjects were then asked to hold up a 5lb weight for as long as they could.
The team found that those who were charitable could keep the weight up for an average of ten seconds longer than those who kept the money.
The second test asked participants to write short stories in which they helped people, hurt people or didn't affect people at all, and then again were asked to hold up a weight. Again, those who had done good deeds were stronger than the neutral group, but interestingly, those who had done bad deeds were stronger still.
"Whether you're saintly or nefarious, there seems to be power in moral events," said Kurt Gray, a psychologist at Harvard. "People often look at others who do great or evil deeds and think, 'I could never do that' or 'I wouldn't have the strength to do that.' But in fact, this research suggests that physical strength may be an effect, not a cause, of moral acts."
As weird as the methodology sounds, I'm not about to second guess a bunch of Harvard psychologists. It's very interesting though, that all those Dark Side points seem to have a use beyond making Force Lightning cheaper.
Source: The Telegraph [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/science-news/7610924/Being-morally-strong-makes-you-physically-strong.html]
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Having a strong moral viewpoint makes you physically stronger say researchers.
Researchers at Harvard have found that strong moral thoughts can make you physically stronger and increase your overall stamina.
The team conducted two studies. The first gave subjects a dollar and told them to either keep it or donate it to charity. The subjects were then asked to hold up a 5lb weight for as long as they could.
The team found that those who were charitable could keep the weight up for an average of ten seconds longer than those who kept the money.
The second test asked participants to write short stories in which they helped people, hurt people or didn't affect people at all, and then again were asked to hold up a weight. Again, those who had done good deeds were stronger than the neutral group, but interestingly, those who had done bad deeds were stronger still.
"Whether you're saintly or nefarious, there seems to be power in moral events," said Kurt Gray, a psychologist at Harvard. "People often look at others who do great or evil deeds and think, 'I could never do that' or 'I wouldn't have the strength to do that.' But in fact, this research suggests that physical strength may be an effect, not a cause, of moral acts."
As weird as the methodology sounds, I'm not about to second guess a bunch of Harvard psychologists. It's very interesting though, that all those Dark Side points seem to have a use beyond making Force Lightning cheaper.
Source: The Telegraph [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/science-news/7610924/Being-morally-strong-makes-you-physically-strong.html]
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