Blue and orange morality

MGuy · Post by **MGuy** » Tue Feb 01, 2011 7:26 am

Well its been said often enough on here that "evil" people who do "evil" things don't, for the most part, believe that what they are doing is bad. Isn't that reason enough to believe that, not only a fictional species, but really just different people have a different morality spectrum.

Prak · Post by **Prak** » Tue Feb 01, 2011 3:19 pm

At best "evil" people who do "evil" things may realize that other people see it as wrong, but not see it themselves.

CatharzGodfoot · Post by **CatharzGodfoot** » Tue Feb 01, 2011 3:59 pm

For humans, at least, believing that you are evil will make you stronger. Isn't that reason enough for evil people to revel in their own misanthropy?

Starmaker · Post by **Starmaker** » Tue Feb 01, 2011 8:18 pm

CatharzGodfoot wrote:For humans, at least, believing that you are evil will make you stronger. Isn't that reason enough for evil people to revel in their own misanthropy?

Actual findings: motivated people perform better. Big surprise there.

CatharzGodfoot · Post by **CatharzGodfoot** » Tue Feb 01, 2011 10:01 pm

Starmaker wrote:
CatharzGodfoot wrote:For humans, at least, believing that you are evil will make you stronger. Isn't that reason enough for evil people to revel in their own misanthropy?
Actual findings: motivated people perform better. Big surprise there.

Have you looked at the actual findings?

Starmaker · Post by **Starmaker** » Wed Feb 02, 2011 8:28 am

Yes.

Gray's findings are based on two studies. In the first, participants were given a dollar and told either to keep it or to donate it to charity; they were then asked to hold up a 5 lb. weight for as long as they could. Those who donated to charity could hold the weight up for almost 10 seconds longer, on average.

In a second study, participants held a weight while writing fictional stories of themselves either helping another, harming another, or doing something that had no impact on others. As before, those who thought about doing good were significantly stronger than those whose actions didn't benefit other people.

But surprisingly, the would-be malefactors were even stronger than those who envisioned doing good deeds.

"Whether you're saintly or nefarious, there seems to be power in moral events," Gray says.

So yeah. Writing stories about villains makes you stronger. On the other hand, being stingy with dollars you didn't earn doesn't.

Here's a completely baseless assumption: a higher percentage of "evil" stories was about being awesome while "good" stories leaned towards "pretty, and at the same time touching". The key is awesomeness, and it's easier to imagine at an extremity of a moral framework rather than in the dead center.

CatharzGodfoot · Post by **CatharzGodfoot** » Wed Feb 02, 2011 3:03 pm

Right, it's probably belief in how an idealized self would act. That could be considered a form of motivation (because it encourages a person to act in a certain way), but so are 'my arm is tired, I should put this down' and 'I am doing this study for money so I don't starve'.