Definition
“Heroic rescue” occurs when an individual places himself/herself at risk to save another person in a life-threatening emergency situation.
Introduction
When defining altruism, social scientists usually focus on the intentions of the altruist, and their research has traditionally attempted to isolate the situational factors that determine when people will behave altruistically. Five decades of research have identified the importance of such factors as empathy, rewards, emotional states, social norms, and the number of bystanders in influencing helping behavior. Social science models of altruism do not address the question of why basic motives such as empathy and various situational factors came to be so important. In fact, even most social psychologists continue to study altruism and other social behaviors with little reference to the origins and ultimate functions of altruism, which have...
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McAndrew, F.T. (2016). Heroic Rescue in Humans. In: Weekes-Shackelford, V., Shackelford, T., Weekes-Shackelford, V. (eds) Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Psychological Science. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_1558-1
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