What is moral courage? Definition, explication, and classification of a complex construct.

Tobias Greitemeyer · Peter A. Fischer · Dieter Frey

108 citations0/0 files storedAmerican Psychological Association eBooks

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Leadership, Courage, and Heroism Studies Philosophical Ethics and Theory Psychology of Moral and Emotional Judgment

Abstract

Consider the following two instances of prosocial behavior. The first took place in Munich, Germany, January 13, 2001: About 20 Nazi skinheads harassed a young Greek and started to beat him up in a most brutal way. Five young Turks witnessed the situation and decided to intervene. Risking their own lives, they were able to save the disabled and blood-stained victim from being beaten to death. The second instance occurred in Asia: After the big tsunami wave in Southeast Asia in December 2004, more than 165,000 people lost their lives and more than one million people were made homeless by the floods. Shocked by this horrible natural disaster, people all over the world wanted to ease the victims’ suffering. Thousands of volunteers went to Southeast Asia to help on the ground and in Germany, for example, more than 250 million Euros were collected in private donations to help the tsunami victims. The young Turks and the tsunami volunteers and donors both acted prosocially and supported people who were in situations of severe distress. However, in the first situation, the young Turks had to reckon with massive negative social consequences such as being assaulted by the Nazi skinheads or at least being harassed by them. In contrast, the tsunami volunteers and donors could anticipate positive social consequences such as gratefulness from the victims and recognition from other volunteers, other donors, and the public. Thus, even if both types of actions are done in pursuit of the same goal, namely, helping persons in need, the consequences for the helper might be very different. We argue that the first kind of prosocial behavior is a typical instance of moral courage, whereas the second is more typical of helping behavior. This chapter deals with moral courage. We seek to highlight this construct by comparing it with other prosocial behaviors, such as helping behavior and related constructs such as heroism or social control. We also include research about

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References

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