The Alter Ego Effect or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Player Anthems

"Bo Jackson has never played a down of football in his entire life," said Bo Jackson, former pro football player.

Huh?

After watching the classic horror film, Friday the 13th, young Bo made a change:

He resolved to stop being Bo Jackson and start being Jason on the football field, leaving the uncontrollable rage on the sidelines … suddenly the hotheaded, penalty-prone, easy-to-provoke Bo Jackson transformed into a relentless, cold, and disciplined destroyer on the football field.

Channeling a ‘different’ identity helped him focus every ounce of his talent and skill, and enabled him to show up on the field, without any emotional issues interfering with his performance …

This is not entirely unique to Bo.

Kobe Bryant also created his Black Mamba basketball persona based on Michael Myers from the movie Halloween. He would even listen to the Halloween theme song on repeat before games (NSFW). Separating himself from competition was a necessity for him to move forward and change as a person.

The idea of creating an alter ego to deal with pressure, or take you beyond your self-imposed limits and emotions is called "The Batman Effect" or "The Alter Ego Effect." I'm generally pretty skeptic of a lot of psychology research, but this one has some decent data on it by some pretty respected researchers. With the addition of the Haunted Hallows villain player anthems in the item shop, we've been given a unique chance to use even some of the same music that helped some of the greatest performers of all time remain calm and not get tilted or anxious. For me, Michael Myers will be the one stoically in my car and he'll have his player anthem as a reminder. Who will be yours?