To understand why heroism exists, we must first understand why some people act in ways that provide greater-than expected benefits to others.To do so, we must describe how others respond to these actions and why they elevate the status of heroic actors.Evolutionary biology, and its subfield evolutionary psychology, offer well-validated scientific explanations for helpful behaviours, and a rich understanding of the psychology of social status and social judgments.In this chapter, we offer explanations for the phenomenon of heroism, based on reviews of relevant evolutionary literatures.After situating the study of heroism within these broader frameworks, we conclude with a cautious discussion of the practical implications of evolutionary perspectives on heroism.
Stored only when both papers are in the corpus — 419 citations exist upstream.