The Psychology of Heroism

by Anna Danso-Amoako and Mary Tumbrok

(image created by Banksy for  Southampton General Hospital, 2020)

Within popular culture, superheroes have existed as the embodiments of justice and morality. Equipped with their superhuman abilities, they can be counted on to ultimately defeat the antagonist and save the day. Humanity is filled with a plethora of heroes spanning across history. Ancient heroes: include Achilles who had no physical weakness aside from his famous heel and Hercules who was renowned for his extraordinary strength. A common theme amongst these heroes is their abilities are often given through their links to divinity with both Achilles and Heracles being demigods. This implies only certain people are able to ever be true superheroes. However the superheroes of current popular culture have refined the limits of human might with heroes such as Iron Man and Batman who used their resources, intellectual abilities and intensive training to become well regarded heroes.

Whilst all the aforementioned heroes are fictional we exist in a world with many real life heroes. From the workers who continue to work during these unpredictable and uncertain times to the individuals who look out for those who can’t protect themselves. Although everyday life for the majority of us remains strictly in our households, real life heroes continue to fight around the clock. The sacrifice being made by these members of the country are in some cases unbelievable far surpassing ordinary kindness and will surely go on to inspire countless others beyond this pandemic.

But how can heroism be explained?

By taking a psychological approach, the behaviours of heroic people can be understood and potentially applied helping us all become a little more heroic.

One of the main parts of being a heroic person in this time is displaying altruistic behaviours. Altruism is the act of responding to someone’s need for help. In some fields of psychology such as evolutionary psychology this may be done in the expectation of receiving similar treatment in return, a term known as ‘Reciprocal altruism’. Acting altruistically when not expecting anything in return is a behaviour exhibited in humans from an early age, with research suggesting that even toddlers notorious for their possessive streaks with their toys and other belongings could indeed display altruistic behaviours when they saw an adult in distress. The children stopped playing with games or their toys in order to help however crossing the line into being able to give up their belongings proved a much more difficult test. However adopting altruistic behaviours for us isn’t as hard as it is for a toddler, understanding that we don’t need to be rewarded for helping others is an important element into becoming an everyday hero.

Altruism and it’s connections to empathy can be further explained by the Empathy-altruism hypothesis. The term was demonstrated in action in the Toi and Baston study in with female participants who were made to feel a higher level of empathy for “Carol”, a car crash victim were more likely to offer help within the scenario (providing her with help in their psychology class) even when it came at a personal cost to themselves. Altruism while the kind thing to do, requires a lot of giving however it has been suggested that we still do feel rewarded without being given anything in return. A 2014 study found that engagement in an altruistic act would stimulate the parts of the brain associated with the reward system such as the dopaminergic ventral tegmental area which therefore produces positive feelings enabling the positive reinforcement of these compassionate behaviors. So the more you help others the better you feel!

One challenge in becoming a hero is overcoming some psychological barriers. One in which we find particularly important to address is the bystander effect. It can be attributed to the reason why individuals avoid responsibility within a crowd setting. The consequences are often dire in worst circumstances but why is it so hard to act when we know something is wrong and we have the means to prevent it from happening? Latané and Darley who are credited for discovery of the bystander effect mainly found it is the shifting of responsibility to others in the group that prevents individual action. To counter this we have to shift from passive bystanders to active bystanders, if we assume that we are personally responsible it’s easier to begin to take the necessary steps.

Finally and most importantly, a hero doesn’t have to be someone who is perfectly benevolent and ready to serve in an instant. Especially in these times it is also vital that you treat yourself with kindness first. You have to help yourself before you can help others. Being an everyday hero can simply be adopting acts of prosocial behavior into your daily routine. These are defined as “a broad range of actions intended to benefit one or more people other than oneself - behaviours such as helping, comforting, sharing and cooperation.” It often doesn’t take much of ourselves to help the people closer to us but with social distancing sometimes our help can be more comforting than we realise.

And that is how a true hero is made.