civic virtue and action

Heroism, Civic Virtue, and

Civic Action: Some Areas to

Research

George A. Quattrone

Quattrone Consulting Services

Historical Background

The Disturbing Aspects of Human

Nature

Research and World Events

Among the most memorable studies in

psychology are those demonstrating

the power of social situations to induce

people to act in ways contrary to

internalized codes of decency and

morality.


Studies by Stanley Milgram showed

that, under certain conditions, people

from all walks of life would obey the

commands of a seemingly legitimate

authority to the point of possibly

electrocuting an innocent stranger.


In some respects, Milgram’s studies reflected actual events of the 20th century.

To effect their visions of a ‘new world order,’ tyrants such as Hitler, Stalin and Pol Pot issued commands leading to the murders of millions of harmless civilians.


What is arguably most frightening and puzzling is that these tyrants could not have pursued their murderous agendas without the active cooperation, or passive complicity, of millions of ordinary people, most of whom never before committed a crime or publicly expressed any serious intentions to behave illegally or immorally.


In the Stanford Prison Experiment, or

SPE, Philip Zimbardo randomly

assigned normal college students to

the roles of prisoners or guards.

Before very long, the guards had

prisoners performing such demeaning

behaviors as cleaning toilets with their

bare hands and simulating sexual acts.


Those prisoners who did not have an

emotional breakdown adapted by

becoming mindlessly obedient.

The abuses uncovered at the Abu

Graib prison, though much more

severe, parallel those documented in

the in the SPE.


The guards at both ‘prisons’ were normal young people given unfamiliar roles to portray, few explicit rules to follow, and little supervision to hold them in check.

Some cases of abuses were committed under command complicity:

– Abuses were either ignored or received the tacit approval of supervisors.

The Banality of Evil

These historical precedents lead us to question whether the line between good and evil is impermeable.

It is customary to believe that only people on the ‘bad’ side of the line would murder innocents, commit crimes of cruelty, or just stand by and do nothing while others are depending on them to help.


We are especially prone to view ourselves as incapable of these moral failures.

That view may be proven wrong were we to face circumstances like those who participated in the atrocities of history or in the lesser evils demonstrated in the laboratory.


The journalist, Hannah Arendt, coined

the term, the banality of evil, to

challenge the view that only ‘monsters’

are capable of monstrous acts.


In Eichmann in Jerusalem, she wrote:

– “The trouble with Eichmann was

precisely that so many were like him, and

that the many were neither perverted nor

sadistic, that they were, and still are,

terribly and terrifyingly normal.”

Looking Beyond the Dark Side

How Do We Bring Out What’s Best

in Human Nature?

The Banality of Heroism

Because evil is so fascinating and its manifestations are so unacceptable, we may have focused disproportionately on what’s worst in human nature.

It’s timely to consider the flip side of the banality of evil:

– Under certain conditions, and with the proper preparation, everyone is capable of acting heroically.


Zeno Franco & Philip Zimbardo use the term, the banality of heroism, to suggest that all people are potential heroes or heroines, capable of responding selflessly to the call of others in need of assistance.

By the use of this term, they intend to debunk the myth of an “heroic elect,” a myth that reinforces two basic human tendencies.


1. The first is to view people who do something special as beyond comparison to the rest of us.

2. The second is the bystander effect — the observation that people fail to assist others mainly because

They do not see themselves as personally responsible for doing so, or

They wait for others to act first.

Fostering the Heroic Imagination

In their article,

– Fostering the heroic imagination: an

ancient ideal and a modern vision,

Kathy Blau, Zeno Franco, and Phil

Zimbardo, elaborate on this idea that all

people have the potential to act nobly

when the opportunity to do so arises.


Several lines of research are proposed to

find ways of tapping people’s inner

heroism.

One strategy is to prepare people for

situations requiring heroic intervention

before the fact.


The rationale for this approach is that, when people succumb to evil forces, it’s typically because they are caught in unfamiliar situations, in which they have yet to learn:

– Which actions are available.

– How to think critically about the demands of others in power, whose objectives are not always transparent.


Using scenarios recreated from actual events, participants will picture themselves under the command of a powerful authority, or among a group of peers, whose influence is used to:

– Prevent them from helping others or from opposing an unjust system

– Compel them to act contrary to deeply rooted values.


Most people who have lived through episodes like these report that no one had any choice but to go along with what was demanded of them.

Yet during these same episodes, certain exemplary individuals upheld human rights, saving thousands of others from certain death and forcing radical changes in corrupt regimes.


There’s evidence that these

‘exemplary’ individuals were in many

ways rather ordinary.

Almost without exception, those who

risked their lives, or made lesser

sacrifices, to uphold basic values

rejected the idea that they stood apart

from the rest of humanity.


Without intending to undermine the

accolades these persons have earned,

we suggest taking their self-

descriptions as reflecting more than

just modesty.

Perhaps these individuals were just

like the rest of us in many respects.


What set them apart from others may have had more to do with their self-labeling, commitment and preparation to respond during urgent times than it did with any inherent capabilities or innate moral sense.

By teaching the lessons we learn from their examples to others, we hope to demystify and democratize heroism.


By having people willingly accept the self-description:

– “I am a hero or heroine in waiting, committed to my civic responsibility to act on others’ behalf.”

…We would have armed them with the best antidote to evil and written for them the best prescription for public health.

How Is Heroism Viewed?

To speak meaningfully of heroism,

we need to address the question of

what heroism is.

It isn’t possible to give a definitive

answer because the term is relative to

the social milieu in which it is used.


Because heroism is ascribed by

people of a particular culture during a

particular era to describe the actions

of others they personally found

admirable, no gallery of heroes and

heroines would be met with universal

endorsement.


Yet despite the social relativism of

heroism, there are certain criteria used

to designate an act as heroic that are

cited by a large proportion of people

asked.


In a recent Harris Poll® (2009), a

cross section of adult Americans were

asked whom they admired enough to

call their heroes.

The respondents then gave reasons to

explain their choices.


Mentioned most often were the following reasons: 1. Doing what’s right regardless of personal

consequences (89%),

2. Not giving up until the goal is accomplished (83%),

3. Doing more than what other people expect of them (82%),

4. Overcoming adversity (81%),

5. Staying level-headed in a crisis (81%).

What Makes an Act Heroic?

Franco & Zimbardo listed certain criteria used to judge an act as heroic.

– The act must be voluntary.

– It must involve physical peril, profound social sacrifice, consequences the actor is willing to accept.

– The act must be in the service of others, performed without the of expectation of extrinsic gain.

Types of Heroic Acts

1. Physical-risk heroism:

– Martial heroism is ascribed to people whose duty includes taking physical risks, but whose actions went beyond the call of duty.

Types of Heroic Acts

1. Physical-risk heroism:

– Civil heroism also involves taking physical risks but is not duty-bound; for example, ordinary bystanders in an emergency who don’t just stand by

2. Social heroism:

– Is sustained action devoted to a cause or to enact legislation in support of a moral imperative.

Heroism Vs. Altruism

To target perceptions about

heroism that are of particular

theoretical significance, Blau,

Franco, and Zimbardo allude to a

survey conducted among visitors

to the website, Everyday Heroism

http://www.everydayheroism.org/

Heroism Vs. Altruism

One question asked is whether people thought of heroism as just another form of altruism. Apparently not.

Compared to altruistic acts, heroic deeds require:

– Significant danger or risk to personal safety.

– “Something more” from the actor.

– Greater sacrifice.

Democratization of Heroism

Research by Lindsay Rankin and

Alice Eagly (2008) examined how

social construction affects the

differential representation of men and

women as heroic.


On the one-hand, heroism would

seem to be culturally androgynous as

it represents a combination of

attributes stereotypically associated

with men, such as risk-taking, and

attributes stereotypically associated

with women, such as empathic

concern for others’ welfare.


On the other hand, careers and roles

providing opportunities for the

performance of heroic acts have been

skewed in favor of men:

– Taking risks often requires superior

physical prowess and women have been

constrained by their roles as the primary

caretakers of children at home.


In one of their studies, participants reported males more often than women when naming public heroes … who were usually those of the physical- or social-risk varieties cited earlier,

… but named men and women equally when asked to identify heroes they knew personally … who tended to be family guardians or people who met challenges.


Another study found that the likelihood of naming men and women as heroic was less evident when participants read scenarios in which either a man or a woman came to the rescue of children.

The scenarios entailed either high or low risks to the rescuer, whose actions yielded either high or low benefits to the endangered child.


Because the factors of risk and benefit

diminished the discrepant ascriptions of

heroism due to gender, the results support

the idea that:

– Given the same opportunities, men and

women who act heroically would be

recognized as such by others.

Social Activism and Volunteerism

That acting to benefit others needn’t be constrained by gender is indicated by the growing number of women and girls joining or starting their own organizations devoted to various social causes.

http://www.girlsforachange.org/


Some of these grass roots organizations, such as Girls for a Change, support their members quest to empower themselves against cultural roles that have silenced their voices and hindered their actions for so many years.

Although volunteerism and social activism are not commonly cited as heroic ventures, these pursuits share certain key features in common with heroism.

http://www.girlsforachange.org/


Snyder and Omoto (2007) identify six criteria to differentiate volunteerism from other forms of pro-social activism.

1. Voluntary: the actions of volunteers must be performed on the basis of the actor’s free will without bonds of obligation or coercion.

2. Deliberate: volunteering to provide services for others or to further a cause involves deliberation or decision making; they are not reflexive acts like “emergency helping.”


3. Prolonged: volunteer activities must be delivered over a period of time, extend over weeks or years, thus excluding one-time special events or activities.

4. Intrinsically Rewarding: the decision to volunteer is based on the person’s own goals without the expectation of rewards, such as pay, or as a means to avoid punishment, such as censure.


5. Assistance is Welcomed: the services provided by volunteers must not be imposed on recipients but willingly sought out or accepted by the individual or organizations served.

6. Formal /Structured: volunteers act with agencies or organizations on behalf of particular people or causes. Helping one’s neighbors or giving change to a

panhandler is therefore excluded.


The next slide presents a broad conceptual framework identifying issues raised by social action; its intention is to organize existing research and to guide subsequent investigations.

Social action is depicted as a process that unfolds over time (horizontal structure) and can be analyzed from the level of the individual up to the level of societies and cultures (vertical structure).


What follows is a sample of

representative research cited by Snyder

and Omoto to illustrate the model’s utility

as an organizer and generator of

knowledge of social action.

1. At the level of individual social actors,

differences in personality, interpersonal

orientation, and age have been implicated as

moderators of social action.


2. At the level of interpersonal relationships, there are

indications that ingroup versus outgroup status

influences the willingness to volunteer and how

social dilemmas are resolved.

3. At the broadest systemic level, there are growing

indications of important differences between

societies and cultures in the construal of helping,

social participation, and civic engagement; these

differences may moderate the forms that social

action takes.

Personal Values and Ethical

Choices

Some Puzzling Results and New

Leads

Compliance and Defiance

In presentations of the film, Obedience,

members of the audience typically

applaud the teacher shown to defy the

experimenter’s orders and express

disapproval of those who do not.

The defiant participants, however, may

not be as different as they seem from

those who fully obey.


First, there are no grounds to ascribe to compliers indifference to the learner’s plight:

– All participants experience considerable stress as they hear the learner’s cries of agony.

– All suggest the experiment be halted after hearing the learner’s demands to be released.


Second, in a study using verbal insults as

punishment rather than shock, Bocchiaro

and Zimbardo report that, when defiants

refuse to continue, they do so in a tone

better described as deferential than as

confrontational, eschewing a posture of

moral indignation even as they make the

ethically normative choice.


These authors, as many before them,

found few dispositional measures that

reliably differentiate between those

who choose to defy orders and those

who fully obey.


Whereas personal characteristics matter little in this paradigm, factors in the social situation matter greatly.

On the next slide is shown what I’ll call the situational gradient,’ graphically illustrating the cross-experimental finding that rates of compliance can soar to nearly 100% or plummet to nearly 0% depending on specific details of the social situation.


Situational Gradient


What remains most puzzling is that no

participant, not even one among the

defiants, has ever been observed going to

to see whether the learner needs help or is

even alive.


The puzzle can be put as follows.

1. The disobedient subjects' decision not to

continue implies that they have come to

regard their own distress as a better indicator

of their need to consider the other’s

condition than they can regard the

experimenter's formerly undisputed

assurance that the shocks, though painful,

will cause no permanent tissue damage.


2. Why, then, do these defiant subjects not

conclude that, unless they take it upon

themselves to look into the learner's

well being, no one in this situation will

look into it?

– How could they count on the experimenter

to do the right thing?


Why doesn't the very concern for others

that motivates ‘passive resistance’ – such

as the refusal to obey – not always lead

to active assistance?

Asked another way, when individuals do

refuse to sit still while others are in need

of their help, what awakens them to the

call of action?

Some Awakening Calls

Variations in social accountability:

– People obey the law and uphold standards of

morality in part to avoid the legal and social

sanctions they’d suffer for failing to do so.

– The concern for having to answer personally

for their deeds is subverted when they allow

themselves to become anonymous, or ‘de-

individuated.’


– By wearing masks or uniforms, having their

names replaced by serial numbers, being

submerged in a group, or by being subjected

to any other factor that divorces themselves

from their unique identities, they perceive

themselves as less identifiable than usual.

– “Nobody knows who I am or cares to

know,” describes the relation between the

deindividuated self and others.


Variations in concern with self-

evaluation:

– Over time, adults uphold legal and moral

standards less because of their concern about

the legal and social sanctions they’d suffer

for failing to do so and more because of self-

sanctions, such as the anticipation of guilt.


– These internal warnings may falter under

altered states of consciousness induced by

drugs or alcohol, strong emotions, intense

actions, and an expanded sense of the

present.

– When absorbed in the present, values

internalized in the past, as well as goals and

the fear of sanctions - which are set in the

future - are temporarily suspended.


– Internal warnings may also falter when

factors in the social situation diminish the

perceived role of the self in affecting the

outcomes of others.

– For example, in the situational gradient, it

can seen that obedience is enhanced when

participants act as bystanders and do not

personally administer the shock.

The Empathogetic Spectrum

We’ve already noted the importance of ‘empathic concern for others’ as a precondition for heroic intervention.

But we’ve also seen that agreeing to harm others is not a sign of lacking empathic concern for them, nor is the refusal to to harm a sign of empathic concern so dominant as to turn a path of verbal resistance to active assistance.


Empathic concern, like nobility of purpose, are requisites for heroic intervention.

There is much evidence that these sentiments are the normal standards among ordinary people ordinarily use, these sentiments are primed, readily apparent by circumstances, and not obscured by other factors that obscure their relevance.


Are there occasions in which another’s misfortune spontaneously induces the empathic concern to act on their behalf, in the absence of being beckoned by others to ‘do the right thing’?

I’ll refer to empathogetic states those experienced when another’s plight brings to mind episodes involving the self, or people one cares about dearly, that resembles what others are up against.


These states may be based on memories of the past:

– “I too know how it feels to be harassed, bullied, or taken advantage of.”

– “I’ll forever be grateful to the firefighters who saved the lives of my family when our home was in flames.”

– Never again will I not take seriously threats of war or genocide issued by people with the power to deliver.


At the other of the spectrum are

empatholytic states, in which

– One fails to be moved by others’

predicament.

– One is moved by is but is impeded from

acting for various reasons.


These divergent states may be triggered not only by memories of the past but also by the anticipated outcomes of upcoming events.

Consider a minor variation in the standard obedience paradigm:

– actual subjects are always assigned the role of teacher; the confederate is always assigned the role of learner.


is used instead not to assign different

roles but to determine the order in

which the roles are assigned.

Some Awakening Calls (Cont’d.)

One experiential way of promoting an empathogetic

orientation is by means of a simple variation on

Milgram’s procedure.

– Suppose participants learn that the initial coin flip – the ploy used

to assign actual subjects always to the role of teacher – is used in

the present instance not to assign different roles but to determine

the order in which the roles are assigned.

– While participants are shocking the learner in these conditions,

they are going to have to deal with the prospect that they too may

soon undergo the same fate; that prospect may motivate greater

defiance and even attempts to have the experiment shut down.

– It may be regrettable that only by being so awakened may they

‘peer outside their own house of mirrors’ and come to the other’s

aid, but the experience may carry over into other contexts faced

outside the laboratory.


An empathogetic orientation to the Prisoner’s Dilemma

Game, along with a little bit of ‘magical thinking,’ can be

seen in a study reported by Shafir and Tversky.

– In a Prisoner's Dilemma game, Ss overwhelmingly chose the

competitive move both when they knew that their opponent had

already chosen to compete (97%) and when they knew that the

opponent has already chosen to cooperate (84%).

– When they were not told their opponent’s choice before making

their own, they were much less likely to make the competitive

choice (63%).

– The experimenters explain the results in part by appealing to the

‘magical thinking’ that is open to players unaware of what the

other will do: they could reason that by choosing the cooperative

option they could ‘induce’ the other to make the same, mutually

beneficial move.


– To this belief in one’s ability to influence another ‘telepathically,’

we appeal also to the absence of any awakening call of how one’s

own self-interests are affected by the other’s choice;

– These are the empatholytic conditions that prevailed when the

other’s choice was already known; now, subjects felt freer to

choose that alternative best for themselves alone.

Another means of awakening participants is by bringing

attention to how the other’s responses bear on values

more central to the self than is the concern for others:

– In a study from the original series by Milgram, the rate of

absolute obedience was reduced to 0%.


– This diminished level was evidenced when subjects were

informed that the learner ‘enjoyed pain,’ eagerly awaiting the

punishing stimuli.

– This bizarre information about the other was sufficient to

transform the erstwhile legitimate scientific study into a kind of

perverse sado-masochistic ritual that subjects wanted little to do

with.

These results indicate that the distinction between action

motivated by self-interests and by interests that transcend

the self are more subtle than has been recognized.


According to SCOTT ATRAN and JEREMY GINGES:

“Across the world, people believe that devotion to sacred or core

values that incorporate moral beliefs — like the welfare of family

and country, or commitment to religion and honor — are, or ought to

be, absolute and inviolable.”

The results of a survey involving nearly 4,000 Israelis

and Palestinians from 2004 to 2008 were reported in the

article, How Words Could End a War.

All those surveyed responded to the same set of deals:

– First they would be given a straight-up offer in which each side

would make difficult concessions in exchange for peace; e.g., a

peace treaty between Israel and the Palestinians is offered under

which Palestinians would give up their right to return to Israel in

exchange for a two state solution.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/25/opinion/25atran.html?th=&emc=th&pagewanted=all


– Next, they were given a scenario in which their side was granted

an additional material incentive; e.g., Western nations would give

the Palestinian state $10 billion a year for 100 years.

– And last came a proposal in which the other side agreed to a

symbolic sacrifice of one of its sacred values; e.g., Israel would

officially apologize for the displacement of civilians in the 1948

war.

In general, the greater the monetary incentive involved in

the deal, the greater the disgust respondents showed for

it.

Further, absolutists who violently rejected offers of

money or peace for sacred land were considerably more

inclined to accept deals that involved their enemies

making symbolic but difficult gestures.


For example, Palestinian hard-liners were more willing to

consider recognizing the right of Israel to exist if the

Israelis simply offered an official apology for Palestinian

suffering in the 1948 war.

Besides provoking ‘disgust’ at negotiated settlements, the

use of incentives divorced from core values may operate

in another manner opposite to what may be expected

from a ‘rationally calculated’ cost/benefit analysis.

In situations that induce actions contrary to their values,

people typically perceive no easy way out.


In the obedience studies, not only does the experimenter

refuse to take no for an answer; participants may also

find it difficult to justify their decision to stop at any

particular level, given they are already on record as

having gone as far as they did.

“Since when did you suddenly become so concerned?” is

a question they risk having to give a cogent answer to.

It would be far easier for them to exit by indignantly

refusing to accept cash or other ‘bribes,’ thereby turning a

common tool used to solicit compliance into a tool to

break one’s stranglehold to an earlier commitment they

now want out of.

Emotion and Action

Some Tentative Evidence Relevant

to Rescue and Survival

Incompatible Responses

Humor: “It is difficult to laugh and suffer at the same time,” is one way of summarizing the conclusions reached Chaya Ostrower in a her Ph.D. dissertation, Humor as a defense mechanism in the Holocaust.

In it, she addressed the once taboo subject of the use of humor among inmates at concentration camps.

http://web.macam98.ac.il/~ochayo/absractn.html

http://web.macam98.ac.il/~ochayo/absractn.html


Based on her interviews of survivors, she concluded that humor:

1. Lessened the subjective horror of internment.

2. Acted as a defense mechanism against aggression and self-pity.

3. Served a collective life-preserving function, for example, among inmates who shared ‘juicy bits of gossip’ in the latrines, dubbed Radio Tuches Agency.


Efforts to amuse others, therefore, can take on an heroic dimension when demonstrated during times of peril, in which one’s own life is at stake and there’s a high risk of succumbing to fear or self-pity.

Although spreading cheer is not always life-saving, it nonetheless affords the [lesser] benefit of combating the incompatible emotion of despair.


"Even when there was

no food and we had to

eat grass, we could still

choose which blade of

grass was the best," Dr

Edie Eger told reporters

for the La Jolla Light.

Life vs. Death: Other survivors remember

focusing on facets of being alive, rather than

on the prospect of imminent death.

http://www.lajollalight.com/news/219913-even-in-a-concentration-camp-she-accentuates-the-positive



Even when there was no food and we had to eat grass,

we could still choose which blade of grass was the

best," Dr Edie Eger told reporters for the La Jolla

Light.

Dr. Eger used numerous other coping mechanisms to

survive, such as imagining she was starring at the

Budapest Opera House while performing pirouettes at

Auschwitz for the personal amusement of Joseph

Mengele. In her present occupation as a clinical

psychologist, she applies these coping strategies to

help other victims, such as battered wives.

Life vs. Death:

Other survivors remember focusing on facets of being alive, rather than on the prospect of imminent death.





Dr. Eger used numerous other coping mechanisms to survive, such as imagining she was starring at the Budapest Opera House while performing pirouettes at Auschwitz for the personal amusement of Joseph Mengele.

In her present occupation as a clinical psychologist, she applies these coping strategies to help other victims, such as battered wives.

Positivity

Elevation: People report feeling the positive state of elevation after observing others doing good or making a humanely inspired choice.

According to moral philosopher Jonathan Haidt, powerful moments of elevation can wipe out cynicism and replace it with hope, love, optimism, and moral inspiration.

Positivity

Elevation has an additional social aspect:

– It’s more likely to be experienced when one is among others than alone.

In this respect, elevation is like happiness which, according to researchers at Harvard, Can Spread Among People Like a Contagion, especially among people who live within a mile of one another and consider themselves mutual friends.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/12/04/AR2008120403537_pf.html

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/12/04/AR2008120403537_pf.html

Positivity

Bedside manner: A positive state can of course be transferred to an individual directly; but those in need of it most do not often receive it.

According to a report by Denise Grady, research supports the idea that a few kind words from an oncologist can go a long way toward helping people cope with their cancers and maybe even benefit them medically.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/08/health/08seco.html?_r=1&ex=1200459600&en=1285c7b276d55aba&ei=5070&emc=eta1

Positivity

Yet doctors and patients aren’t

communicating all that well about

emotions.

“The doctors don’t lack empathy,” James

A. Tulsky, of the Duke University

Medical Center said. “They just have

trouble expressing it.”

Positivity

He, along with other researchers, believe that physicians can be taught to respond in more helpful ways.

Extensive counseling is not required; teaching physicians to be a little more mindful would help:

– A patient would say, “I’m scared,” and the doctor would go off on a “scientific riff” about the disease, Dr. Tulsky said, “we saw that a lot.”

Moving vs. Being Moved

“That was a moving experience” or “I was moved by your letter,” is how speakers sometimes convey their emotional responses to events, such as elevation upon learning about a good deed or sadness in response to a tragic tale.

The relation between these two senses of movement is not very clear.

Being Moved vs. Moving

Earlier we saw that 81% of respondents

gave “Staying level-headed in a crisis” as

a reason for naming a public figure as a

personal hero.

These respondents seem to have

understood that a crisis can be so

emotionally overwhelming that it may

interfere with effective action .


“… in the sky, there was the low sound of

airplanes, and suddenly [Razi] was

transformed, his body rigid, his eyes

locked into a stare of panic” is how

STEVEN ERLANGER of The NY Times

described an Israeli boy’s reaction to

what he took to be an airborne attack.


Stories written by survivors of the

Tsunami of 2004 give frequent accounts

of victims responding to the flooding by

becoming paralyzed, also referred to as

being in shock.

What’s tragic about these tales is that

many who perished could have survived

simply by moving to higher ground.

http://www.tsunamistories.net/Default.aspx


In fact, the stories give numerous accounts of

‘heroes’ who did just that, leading others to

safety up a hillside,‘staying level-headed’

amidst widespread panic and pandemonium.

“Miracles happen because a lot of everyday

things happen for years and years and years,”

Kitty Higgins of the The National

Transportation Safety Board said in reference

to the crew aboard US Airways Flight 1549.


"These people knew

what they were

supposed to do and

they did it and as a

result, nobody lost

their life.”

[Italics mine.] Miracle on the Hudson

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/17/nyregion/17flight.html?th=&emc=th&pagewanted=all

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/17/nyregion/17flight.html?th=&emc=th&pagewanted=all


Fostering the heroic imagination can

create resistance to the paralysis observed

during a crisis

According to the well-known

psychological principle called the Yerkes-

Dodson law:

– When highly aroused, people perform tasks

that are easy, routine, or habitual better than

when they are not aroused.


– Conversely, under high arousal, they perform poorly on tasks that are difficult, complex, or new.

– In extreme cases, their performance may suffer so much as to lead to paralysis – in effect, no action at all.

Through educational programs starting from K-12 and continuing on to community centers for adults, heroic intervention can be nurtured as an ordinary civic virtue, a disposition to behave that, ideally, can become as habitual as stopping at a red light, and thus less likely to be impaired by high arousal.

Be Prepared

Making a habit of doing the little things each day is good breeding for doing a ‘big’ thing when the occasion calls for it. Ask any boy scout, like the one on the left, and he’ll tell you about the importance of being prepared.

Making a habit of doing the little things each day is good breeding for doing a ‘big’ thing when the occasion calls for it. Ask any boy scout, like the one on the left, and he’ll tell you about the importance of being prepared.

http://music.slsa.sa.gov.au/view/I1270586x/zsmi1270586x_s001_fc.jpg

http://music.slsa.sa.gov.au/view/I1270586x/zsmi1270586x_s001_fc.jpg

Putting Inner States ‘On Hold’

One phenomenon not well understood are the reports of survivors who recall being able to put their emotions, or their experience of pain, "on hold" for a while.

“I could feel myself getting banged from every angle but I couldn't feel any pain,” is how Sally Huyton remembers being tossed about a motel room along with the furniture. “Little did I know that I had a hole in my stomach that you could fit 2 big fists in [and]my foot was hanging off.” (From: Surviving the Tsunami)

http://www.tsunamistories.net/Default.aspx

Putting Inner States ‘On Hold’

It's only after the imminent danger has

passed do they express fear or anguish.

[Much later] “I thought the nightmare

was over but I came to whilst they were

still operating on my ankle, the pain was

unbearable, but they had to continue.

How reliable these stories are or how

frequently they occur is unknown but

worth investigating.

An Optimal Level of Arousal?

Another hypothesis worth

investigating is that the relation

between ‘being moved’ and

actually ‘moving’ is akin to that

between ‘external incentives’ and

‘internalization.’


According to the minimal sufficiency principle (Lepper), children are most likely to adopt values consistent with their behaviors if parents (and others) employ an optimal, intermediate level of external incentives.

– Below this level, and the child may refuse to act as told;

– Beyond this level, and the child may act as told but not do so afterwards unless similarly rewarded or freed of threats.


So might there be an intermediate level of

emotional involvement for individuals to

translate their civic lessons into civic

action.

– Too much emotion and they lose the ‘level-

headedness’ needed to perform in a crisis.

– Too little and they may lack the motivation

to take any action at all.

Selected References

Blau, K., Franco, Z. And Zimbardo, P. (2009). Fostering the Heroic Imagination: an Ancient Ideal and a Modern Vision. Eye on Psi Chi, 18-21.

Bocchiaro, P. & Zimbardo, P. (2008). Deciding to Defy Unjust Authority: An Experimental

Investigation. Unpublished Manuscript. University of Palermo

Franco, Z., & Zimbardo, P. (2006-07, Fall–winter). The Banality of Heroism. Greater Good, 3(2), 30-35.

Haidt, J. (2003). Elevation and the positive psychology of morality. In C. L. M. Keyes & J. Haidt (Eds.) Flourishing: Positive psychology and the life well-lived.

Washington DC: American Psychological Association. (pp. 275-289).

Lindsay E. Rankin and Alice H. Eagly (2008). Is His Heroism Hailed and Hers Hidden? `Women, Men, and the Social Construction of Heroism. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 32, 414–422.

Snyder, M., & Omoto, A. M. (2007). Social Action. In A. W. Kruglanski & E. T. Higgins (Eds.), Social Psychology: A Handbook of Basic Principles (2nd Ed., Pp. 940-961). New York: Guilford.

Zimbardo, P. G. (2007). The Lucifer Effect: Understanding How Good People Turn Evil. New York: Random House.

civic virtue and action

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