KEY QUESTION - Social Psychology

HOW CAN SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY BE USED TO EXPLAIN HEROISM?

The Heroic Imagination Project (Zimbardo) says that heroes require these four key elements:

> Voluntary act

> The act is done in order to help others or a community in need.

> There must be some form of risk involved, for example death in extreme cases.

> Whoever carries out the act does not require any form of compensation or reward for doing so.

UNIVERSAL HUMAN TENDENCIES

> People react automatically to things that we arenot paying attention to. This may lead people to react in dangerous ways > we do not consider the choices that we are making.

> People rely on labels and categories in order to make quick judgements of themselves and of others around them. These judgements may be ill-founded, or a quick response to them may be difficult to reverse.

> People rely on others in order to help them understand what is going on around them, as opposed to udnerstanding it for themselves. This may be  problem if peple rely on others to act as opposed to acting themselves or even misinterpret a situation.

> People seek acceptance from others, and like to avoid being rejected. This may mean that people fail to speakagainst someone else, as…