Experts Look at What Causes Heroism

Sept. 21 -- Less than a month ago, a story about heroes appeared on the cover of a major weekly magazine. Its title: "They're Hard to Find." Its message: We are a nation without heroes.

Sept. 11, 2001, proved that story's experts wrong. Firefighters, police officers, rescue workers and ordinary citizens all risked their own lives for others, at times even losing them for the sake of strangers.

But why would someone — often with no training or expertise — re-enter a burning or collapsing building or risk getting buried to help others?

And what leads to such heroism as seems to have happened on United Flight 93, which crashed in rural Pennsylvania after a group of passengers apparently attacked armed terrorists?

Cause for Courage

"It's a very complex question. There is no single answer," says Samuel Oliner, a pre-eminent expert in altruism and professor of sociology at Humboldt State University in California. He says the strongest commonality is "a profound respect for human life."

"Across various heroes, one of the most important factors is empathy," he says.

Oliner says the stuff of heroes can also be compassion, physical and moral courage, self-esteem, confidence in the ability to prevail, impulsive and risk-taking behavior, spirituality and sensation seeking.

While psychologists have begun to seriously explore a biological basis for empathy, most psychologists, including Oliner, believe in a social and cultural explanation.

Ervin Staub, one of the foremost researchers in altruism, says the trait most often comes from early experience.

"If a child is socialized well to care about the welfare of others, treated with warmth and love, a child will feel good about himself and others," he says.

Staub explains that a key element in heroism is a strong role model, one who can "communicate the difference between right and wrong, not just saying what is right and what is wrong but demonstrate it."

Experts also look for a physiological explanation.