Stormtrooper Motivation

"You told them that there were only 20 Rebels and a tribe of cute little bears on the planet, and that the bears were no threat to them.... Master, I'm afraid your going to have to die for this."

―Darth Vader, to The Emperor, after hearing his method of motivating his troops

Stormtrooper Motivation was the term used by the Imperial High Command for their various methods of instilling confidence into Stormtroopers. One of the more popular usually involved allowing the deaths of half the troops present followed by an official broadcast to the survivors urging them to take heart because the foe was "probably out of ammunition now." Darth Vader, being a master of such skills, could not stand amateur attempts at it. In fact, he went so far as to kill anyone who failed to motivate troopers correctly.

Another method which saw use, especially during the Galactic Civil War, involved military rations. Army food was notorious for being bad, field ration bars were even worse. Therefore, a duo of Imperial ordnance officers theorized that if the food was made bad enough, then Stormtroopers would be eager to die so as to escape it. Upon being put into practice, the theory proved correct, and the ratio of Imperial forces killed while charging fanatically soared.