Social Representations of Hero and Everyday Hero: A Network Study from Representative Samples

The psychological investigation of heroism is relatively new. At this stage, inductive methods can shed light on its main aspects. Therefore, we examined the social representations of Hero and Everyday Hero by collecting word associations from two separate representative samples in Hungary. We const...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:PloS one 2016-08, Vol.11 (8), p.e0159354-e0159354
Main Authors: Keczer, Zsolt, File, Bálint, Orosz, Gábor, Zimbardo, Philip G
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Behavior
Biology and Life Sciences
Cognition & reasoning
Computer and Information Sciences
Courage
Engineering and Technology
Heroes
Heroism
Heroism & heroes
Human behavior
Humans
Knowledge management
Models, Theoretical
Networks
Neurosciences
Occupation
Occupations
People and Places
Psychological aspects
Representations
Social aspects
Social networks
Social psychology
Social Sciences
Social Values
Studies
Theory
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Summary:The psychological investigation of heroism is relatively new. At this stage, inductive methods can shed light on its main aspects. Therefore, we examined the social representations of Hero and Everyday Hero by collecting word associations from two separate representative samples in Hungary. We constructed two networks from these word associations. The results show that the social representation of Hero is more centralized and it cannot be divided into smaller units. The network of Everyday Hero is divided into five units and the significance moves from abstract hero characteristics to concrete social roles and occupations exhibiting pro-social values. We also created networks from the common associations of Hero and Everyday Hero. The structures of these networks show a moderate similarity and the connections are more balanced in case of Everyday Hero. While heroism in general can be the source of inspiration, the promotion of everyday heroism can be more successful in encouraging ordinary people to recognize their own potential for heroic behavior.
ISSN:1932-6203
1932-6203
DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0159354