That article has enough good points it might deserve a more prominent link maybe in a discussion post of its own. The real take-home point that a few people who are only marginally better than their peers at something can become much better if they cooperate and dedicate a lot of resources to working together and improving what they do.
“So, Lone Starr, now you see that evil will always triumph, because good is dumb.”
— Dark Helmet
In a recent article, the unusually well-researched comedy site Cracked.com discussed “5 scientific reasons the dark side will always win,” including:
Perhaps, then, it could be useful to intentionally cultivate a Mysterious Dark Side, or just ask yourself “What would Voldemort do?” once in a while (please do not murder anyone). I’m definitely going to be giving some of these a try; fist-clenching and power-posing are easy, and as a source of evil thoughts and pride, I already have a dark lord alter-ego I could channel when necessary (I’ll probably need to flesh out his character a bit more than I have so far).
The Cracked.com article mostly links to news stories, so, for your convenience, here are the original papers they refer to:
Frank, Mark G. and Gilovich, Thomas (1988). “The Dark Side of Self- and Social Perception: Black Uniforms and Aggression in Professional Sports.” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 54(1), 74-85.
Hung, Iris W. and Labroo, Aparna A. (2011). “From Firm Muscles to Firm Willpower: Understanding the Role of Embodied Cognition in Self-Regulation.” Journal of Consumer Research, 37(6), 1046-1064.
Gray, Kurt (2010). “Moral Transformation: Good and Evil Turn the Weak Into the Mighty.” Social Psychological and Personality Science, 1(3), 253-258.
Carney, Dana R., Cuddy, Amy J.C., and Yap, Andy J. (2010). “Power Posing: Brief Nonverbal Displays Affect Neuroendocrine Levels and Risk Tolerance.” Psychological Science, 21(10), 1363–1368.
Schubert, Thomas W. (2004). “The Power In Your Hand: Gender Differences In Bodily Feedback From Making a Fist.” Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 30(6), 757-769.
Tracy, Jessica L. and Robins, Richard W. (2008). “The Nonverbal Expression of Pride: Evidence for Cross-Cultural Recognition.” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 94(3), 516-530.
Williams, Lisa A. and DeSteno, David (2008). “Pride and Perseverance: The Motivational Role of Pride.” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 94(6), 1007–1017.
Williams, Lisa A. and DeSteno, David (2009). “Pride: Adaptive Social Emotion or Seventh Sin?” Psychological Science, 20(3), 284-288.
Forgas, Joseph P. (2007). “When sad is better than happy: Negative affect can improve the quality and effectiveness of persuasive messages and social influence strategies.” Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 43(4), 513-528.
Forgas, Joseph P. and East, Rebekah. (2008). “On being happy and gullible: Mood effects on skepticism and the detection of deception.” Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 44(5), 1362-1367.
Forgas, Joseph P., Laham, Simon M., and Vargas, Patrick T. (2005). “Mood effects on eyewitness memory: Affective influences on susceptibility to misinformation.” Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 41(6), 574-588.
Wolff, Sarah E. and Puts, David A. (2010). “Vocal masculinity is a robust dominance signal in men.” Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology, 64(10), 1673-1683.