About the lecture

In this lecture, we think about heroism, focusing in particular on: (i) defining heroism as per Franco’s 2011 and 2016 papers; (ii) a review of the methodology and results of Piliavin and colleagues’ 1969 ‘subway study’; (iii) findings that ill people were more likely to be helped, drunk people less so, with men being more likely to be the helpers and race having only a small impact on helping behaviour; (iv) the unethical factors which arise when this study is reviewed; (v) considerations of culture in this study, especially given that ‘New Yorkers’ are renowned as different in their behaviour from other subcultural groups; (vi) Becker and Eagly’s review of gender differences in heroism behaviours; (vii) Levine and colleagues’ cross-cultural assessment of heroism behaviours, which didn’t find those differences between women and men; (viii) a review of Levine and colleagues’ findings, considering individual country’s responses, as well as socioeconomic status and gender; (ix) Dr Bouguettaya’s own definition of heroism, based on the numerous definitions provided across decades of research papers.

About the lecturer

Dr Ayoub Bouguettaya is a lecturer in the School of Psychology at the University of Birmingham. Dr Bouguettaya’s research interests are in social psychology and how knowledge from that field can be applied to others, particularly health, including how we can apply social identity theory to societal problems, as well as investigating the different perspectives one might take on those issues. Some of Dr Bouguettaya’s recent publications include 'The relationship between gambling advertising and gambling attitudes, intentions and behaviours: a critical and meta-analytic review' (2020) and 'The Effect of a Food Addiction Explanation Model for Weight Control and Obesity on Weight Stigma' (2020).