Heroism Research: A Review of Theories, Methods, Challenges, and Trends

Abstract

Heroism as an expression of self-actualization and a pinnacle social state is of fundamental interest to humanistic psychology and the field more broadly. This review places the growing discussion on heroic action in a humanistic perspective, as heroism aligns with ethical self-actualization in its highest form, personal meaning making, and social good, and can also involve profound existential costs. This review is organized in four major sections: First, the historical and philosophical underpinnings of heroism are examined, moving from ancient Greco-Roman perspectives, to more modern interpretations of Continental philosophy, and to Freud and Le Bon. Second, the article summarizes in detail a renaissance of interest in the psychology of heroism that began in the early 2000s, moving from a modern re-theorizing of heroism toward empirical exploration. This renewal of interest is described as six overlapping phases: theory building and exploration of operational

Heroic Helping: The Effects of Priming Superhero Images on Prosociality

“…However, future work could advance this work by employing a subliminal priming method, though we return to this point in the General Discussion. This work is consistent with prior work linking heroes and prosociality ( Kinsella et al, 2015a , b ; Franco et al, 2016 ) as well as the association between prosociality and meaning ( Van Tongeren et al, 2016 ). Moreover, it suggests that heroes may serve an important cultural purpose of motivating coalitional behavioral that strengthens the prosociality of a society.…”

“…Previous research has identified numerous methodological challenges with studying heroes, and researchers have suggested that experimental methodology is necessary to advance research in this domain ( Franco et al, 2016 ). Toward that end, we designed two experiments to test our central hypothesis.…”

“…Heroes serve a variety of social and cultural functions. Previous research has highlighted how heroes may serve an important motivational role of inspiring individuals toward prosocial or altruistic actions ( Franco et al, 2016 ). One of the functions of heroes is to model certain moral behaviors that others should emulate ( Kinsella et al, 2015a ).…”

“…This research suggests that heroes may affect individuals’ perceptions on two related domains. First, because heroes are moral exemplars ( Kinsella et al, 2015a , b ), exposure to heroes may affect people’s intentions to act prosocially ( Franco et al, 2016 ). Because heroes are defined, in part, by their moral courage and conviction, and their ability to do the right thing in the face of considerable adversity, we suspect that heroes play an important role in prosocial processes.…”

The Hero Organism and Heroism Science: A New Frontier of Human Consciousness

“…It marks the end of the centuries old stronghold that mythology, religion and philosophy have had on its observation. This is the second critical interdisciplinary moment in the study of heroism, and the beginnings of a broader global 21 st century heroism movement (Allison, 2015;Efthimiou, 2017a;Franco et al, 2016). But much more work needs to be done, especially between hard science and the humanities.…”