Let me tell you about my chickens. I built them a warm, safe coop, yet they voluntarily sleep outside where the foxes prowl, always turning up unscathed in the morning. They bully the hell out of my cats and steal their food. I wish they would lay their eggs in their nesting box, but heck no, these birds do business on their own terms, making me hunt for their eggs like it’s bloody Easter Sunday every day.
If you were to look up the word “badass” in the dictionary, a picture of my uncompromising chickens would provide a worthy definition. Unfortunately, however, these hardcore hens don’t pose for photos, which is why a team of scientists has now had to go to the trouble of conducting a series of experiments examining what it means to be a true badass.
Using only human participants, the authors of the as-yet un-peer-reviewed study began by exploring the “dual character” of the concept, whereby a person (or chicken) can have either superficial or deeper badass qualities. In this way, the term may be applied to a wide variety of seemingly incompatible characters.
For instance, the researchers note that “on one hand, Genghis Khan is a clear example of a badass. On the other hand, Malala Yousafzai could also be considered a badass. Yet, these two people are about as different from each other as one could imagine.”
Explaining how one of the most bloodthirsty rulers in history could be compared to a human rights activist, the authors reveal that their study participants generally confirmed the dual character of badassness. More specifically, it turns out that most people are happy to apply the term to anyone who displays either outer toughness – say, by slaughtering half of the global population – or inner toughness, through demonstrating moral conviction and inspiring millions of people around the world.
For the record, my chucks are more the Genghis Khan type of badass.
In total, the study authors recruited more than 2,000 people to take part in their thought experiments. On the whole, participants indicated that they consider people to be badass if they are capable of resisting social pressure in order to do the right thing, and successfully taking on difficult tasks.
Condensing these various elements into a single definition of a badass, the researchers state that “one natural way of describing such a person would be to say that they are courageous.” Elucidating the idea further, they explain that this doesn’t necessarily mean you can’t be both badass and afraid, as the term is more befitting of someone who overcomes anxiety than someone who lacks it.
“Nelson Mandela (1995), himself arguably quite badass, wrote that courage ‘is not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it,’” they continue. So basically they’re saying you can’t be considered badass if you’re a chicken.
Come and say that to my chickens’ faces.
The unpublished study is currently available as a preprint on PsyArXiv.
Source Link: This Is How To Be A Badass, According To Science
