Hard to be a Hero

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Hard to Be a Hero

Recently, entire occupations have been granted the label of “heroes”. For example, during the recent COVID-19 pandemic, as well as in previous health crises (such as the SARS and H1N1 pandemics), healthcare workers were applauded – sometimes literally – as “heroes”. Military personnel in the US, but also in the UK, are often called “heroes”. So are police, firefighters, and other first responders.

What are the causes and consequences of perceiving heroism in professional occupations?

Funded by the Leverhulme Trust, this research project explores how being part of an occupation framed as ‘heroic’ can be both a blessing and a curse.

 

This two-year project deploys a set of correlational and experimental studies using large representative UK samples to investigate the consequences and causes of perceiving occupations as heroic. By holding our research to high standards of transparency and rigor, we aim to demonstrate that applying hero rhetoric to groups of workers in crisis situations might come with important social costs: enabling the exploitation of the workers and making their misconduct more socially acceptable.

All the studies conducted within this project will be pre-registered. Data, codes, and material will systematically be publicly shared online. In addition, we will upload reports on each step of the research project (See Project Milestones).

Our program

How malleable are perceptions of “heroism” in groups?

Recent years have shown that entire occupations can be framed as heroic in the media. The explicit or implicit use of hero rhetoric emphasising risk-taking and self-sacrifice of front-line workers during crises can result in public perceptions of heroism.

Can we make underwater welders heroes? Can we turn firefighters into villains? … Those are the kinds of questions we explore in our ‘Heroes Factory‘.

We base our predictions on the idea that, at its core, heroism is about exposing oneself to dangerous situations with the effect of helping people. By manipulating these two main components of heroism – exposure to danger and helpfulness – we try to reduce or increase perceptions of heroism in an array of occupations: soldiers, nurses, psychiatrists, welders, police officers, and firefighters.

What are the positive, as well as negative, consequences of a group being typecast as heroes?

Although people might be grateful toward heroes, does the hero narrative come at the cost of being perceived as less vulnerable, more likely to give without expecting anything in return? What about the social consequences: are heroes shielded from criticism and are they held less accountable for not following regulations?

This research axis asks the following questions: Do we want our occupations to be recognised as heroic? Is it sometimes better to be perceived as victims? Our research programme aims to understand if being collectively framed as heroes is a blessing, a curse, or both.