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Having an alter ego can reduce anxiety, benefit confidence: research

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Re: Having an alter ego can reduce anxiety, benefit confidence: research

#101
post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yep, this is the comment I came here for! On a related note, I attended Dr. Gerbasi's research results at Anthrocon a few years ago, and she noted from her furry survey that the experimental group (furries) rated themselves higher in response to questions such as "I feel good about myself" versus the control group. (her college students)

That might just be what you get with a WEIRD control group though.

Anthrocon was probably also dominated by the Western Educated Industrialised Rich and Democratic subset.

Might be related to the oxytocin furries get from all the snuggling, though.

Re: Having an alter ego can reduce anxiety, benefit confidence: research

#102

True Story: the guy who leads our sales team is a super star named John (legal name). He’s fearless, organized, focused, determined “and Canadian” as he would say. Any way, while he was a rising junior his GF came to the office one day and I heard her call him Jake (nowhere in his name legal name). I asked “who the hell is Jake?” to which she replied “oh, that’s what we call John back home”. I looked at him and he sa…

It's a thing that some people like different names for work and personal life. I knew a guy like that and it was jarring being around him at home.

My take: he had worked with such cretins before, I think he didn't really want to associate his favorite name with them.

Re: Having an alter ego can reduce anxiety, benefit confidence: research

#103
post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That might just be what you get with a WEIRD control group though.

Anthrocon was probably also dominated by the Western Educated Industrialised Rich and Democratic subset. Might be related to the oxytocin furries get from all the snuggling, though.

It could also be biased by age; I assume that the furry subject group skewed older than the students (or at least that the students were a more tightly restricted age group). I know I felt far more self-assured at 30 than I did at 20.

Re: Having an alter ego can reduce anxiety, benefit confidence: research

#104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Actually, dissociation of character is a trait that is rewarded. Although people will claim they want kind-hearted people as lovers, they also very often conveniently ignore what they do for work, and how cruel they have to be, and the partners happily enjoy the shared money (or respect they have from the world). Lovers surely know it: hard to claim Che Guevarra’s wife, Stalin’s wife or Pablo Escobar’s wife didn’t kn…

> Che Guevarra’s wife, Stalin’s wife or Pablo Escobar’s wife Comparing Che Guevarra and Pablo is totally unfair. Che was a true inspiration, born in a rich family, became a doctor and yet sacrificed his life and fought for what he thought would make the society just. On the other hand Pablo is just a gangster who did not care outside of his family.

Che straight up had people tortured and executed at La Cabaña.

Re: Having an alter ego can reduce anxiety, benefit confidence: research

#105
post #46

Anxiety-management tricks that I personally employ is to either refer to a group/class I find myself in as "we" or to use passive rather than active voice. The former I borrowed as a kid watching Spider Man 1994, where Brock/Venom symbiont calls themselves "we"; the latter is an inspiration from David Bohm's rheomode. Both shift the perspective from your ego to the environment that it is embedded into and is a part o…

"We are the Borg. Do you want fries with that?..."

Re: Having an alter ego can reduce anxiety, benefit confidence: research

#106

I need an alto ego... Frederick König. I am a man who can sit for hours working productively at his computer. I am a man who is not affected by boredom. I desire nothing more than to sit, and code. My productivity is off the charts and I am being considered for a promotion. I have excellent coding ability and can apply it with ease by sitting, and coding, for hours, and hours.

Is that the person you desire to be?

Sounds like it's just classic Fredrick König to me.

Re: Having an alter ego can reduce anxiety, benefit confidence: research

#107

I need an alto ego... Frederick König. I am a man who can sit for hours working productively at his computer. I am a man who is not affected by boredom. I desire nothing more than to sit, and code. My productivity is off the charts and I am being considered for a promotion. I have excellent coding ability and can apply it with ease by sitting, and coding, for hours, and hours.

Is that the person you desire to be?

[deleted]

Re: Having an alter ego can reduce anxiety, benefit confidence: research

#108
post #46

Anxiety-management tricks that I personally employ is to either refer to a group/class I find myself in as "we" or to use passive rather than active voice. The former I borrowed as a kid watching Spider Man 1994, where Brock/Venom symbiont calls themselves "we"; the latter is an inspiration from David Bohm's rheomode. Both shift the perspective from your ego to the environment that it is embedded into and is a part o…

It sounds pretty cool. I heard a similar thing — someone advised to completely ignore word "I" in writing. So you don't write e.g. "I felt disappointed that moment", you write "There was a feeling of disappointment then". Don't know if it helps with anxiety, but nevertheless it makes you think more while writing, and that is fun.

Re: Having an alter ego can reduce anxiety, benefit confidence: research

#109
post #46

Anxiety-management tricks that I personally employ is to either refer to a group/class I find myself in as "we" or to use passive rather than active voice. The former I borrowed as a kid watching Spider Man 1994, where Brock/Venom symbiont calls themselves "we"; the latter is an inspiration from David Bohm's rheomode. Both shift the perspective from your ego to the environment that it is embedded into and is a part o…

Shifts to passive voice make me immediately wonder what the speaker is trying to hide. I notice it immediately and it grates.

Yeah, but I hope the parent comment's author doesn't refer to himself as "we" while speaking in public

Re: Having an alter ego can reduce anxiety, benefit confidence: research

#110

I need an alto ego... Frederick König. I am a man who can sit for hours working productively at his computer. I am a man who is not affected by boredom. I desire nothing more than to sit, and code. My productivity is off the charts and I am being considered for a promotion. I have excellent coding ability and can apply it with ease by sitting, and coding, for hours, and hours.

There's an infectious tranquility in the air when König is on the clock because everyone knows he'll get it done when others cannot.
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