Study: 20% of Americans have done heroic deeds -- helping during dangerous emergency, taking stand against injustice, or sacrificed for strangers

By Sharon Jayson, USA TODAY
New research would seem to support President Obama's observation Wednesday night in Tucson that "heroism is here, all around us."

Philip Zimbardo, a Stanford University professor emeritus and colleagues used a nationally-representative sample of 4,000 adults and found that 20% qualified as heroes — they had helped during a dangerous emergency, taken a stand against injustice, or sacrificed for a stranger.

Obama cited Congressional intern Daniel Hernandez, who helped Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords after she was critically wounded, along with doctors and bystanders after an assassination attempt that killed six others and left 13 wounded.

"Heroes are ordinary people," says Zimbardo, of San Francisco. "You become a hero by doing an extraordinary deed."

In the study, both blacks and Hispanics were twice as likely as whites to have performed heroic deeds. Zimbardo says they want to do follow-up research on the reasons for the racial/ethnic differences, which he speculates could be attributed to "greater opportunities to respond" or "being discriminated against makes them have more compassion to others in need."

The study, supported by the Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education at Stanford, asked participants "Have you ever done something that other people — not necessarily you yourself — considered a heroic act or deed?" Those who answered "yes" selected from a list the actions most similar to their own: helping another person in a dangerous emergency; "blowing the whistle" on an injustice with awareness of the personal risk or threat to yourself; sacrifice on behalf of a non-relative or stranger, such as an organ donation; defying unjust authority; or other.

Among the 20% who met the survey definition, 55% had helped someone during an emergency, 8% confronted an injustice, 14% had defied unjust authority and 5% had sacrificed for a stranger.

"These are people who did very dramatic things," Zimbardo says. "They're everyday quiet heroes."

The survey also found someone is more likely to be a hero if the individual has experienced a personal trauma or disaster; or the individual has previously volunteered in non-threatening settings, such as at a soup kitchen.

Social psychologist Scott Allison of Richmond, Va., says Hernandez' reaction is common among those cited for heroic deeds.

"It is part modesty, but what they're also acknowledging is that it's the situation that gives rise to heroism more than anything else. We call it a 'heroic moment.' The terrible tragedy produced heroic opportunities for everyday people to do something extraordinary," he says.

For the book Heroes: What They Do & Why We Need Them, which Allison co-authored, face-to-face interviews with 450 adults asked them to name their heroes and explain why. The survey produced a pattern of traits common to heroes, including intelligence, courage, charisma and selflessness, he says.

"We have a need for heroes because we have a need to be challenged," Allison says. "We love heroes because of what they offer us — hope for better world.

The future is just why Zimbardo says he created the nonprofit Heroic Imagination Project, which has begun with pilot programs for adolescents in the Bay area.

"At a very deep psychological level, we all need and want heroes to be special people to inspire us," he says. "Heroes are really the soul of a nation. They represent what is best in human nature."