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Other Public Affairs, Public Policy and Public Administration

University of Nebraska - Lincoln

Series

Altruism

Articles 1 - 2 of 2

Full-Text Articles in Social Psychology

The Making Of A Hero: Cultivating Empathy, Altruism, And Heroic Imagination, Ari Kohen, Matt Langdon, Brian R. Riches Jan 2017

The Making Of A Hero: Cultivating Empathy, Altruism, And Heroic Imagination, Ari Kohen, Matt Langdon, Brian R. Riches

Department of Political Science: Faculty Publications

Heroes are not born; they’re made. This article examines the commonalities in the backgrounds of people who take heroic action on behalf of others to theorize the ways in which our society can encourage citizens to prepare themselves to act heroically. In looking closely at a variety of people who have acted heroically, in a single moment or over time, we argue they have at least four crucial commonalities: They imagined situations where help was needed and considered how they would act; they had an expansive sense of empathy, not simply with those who might be considered “like them” but …


Sources Of Altruistic Calling In Orthodox Jewish Communities: A Grounded Theory Ethnography, Stephen J. Linenberger Dec 2010

Sources Of Altruistic Calling In Orthodox Jewish Communities: A Grounded Theory Ethnography, Stephen J. Linenberger

Department of Agricultural Leadership, Education and Communication: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Scholarship

This study of altruistic calling the Orthodox Jewish community began with a line of inquiry, grounded in previous hypotheses and studies of factors that motivate altruism in the general population, including empathy, unintended consequences of altruism, altruistic role modeling, collectivism, and principlism. Counter to past research suggesting altruism is activated along an empathy-altruism path (Batson, et al., 2007) the findings of this study revealed a consistent low empathy response by participants when asked about their feelings about those in need. However, when asked to describe outcomes of helping situations, there was a consistent high empathetic joy response, indicating the helper …