LAUSR

A s our species evolved over the millennia, given the intense pressures for survival, we humans have focused on pathology. What is “wrong,” “threatening,” “problematic?” We attend to threat and consequent fear before heeding other concerns. It is no surprise then that social psychology with its domain of interpersonal interactions has heavily researched the “undesirable” and “negative” social behaviors of obedience (Milgram, 1963) and bullying and intimidation (Zimbardo, 2007). How refreshing it is then to have a spotlight turned onto a human interaction that is optimistic, altruistic, and socially productive. Surprisingly, there is little research on the nature of heroic action, nor money spent on investigating how to get people to follow their conscience, their moral compass. After decades of researching the “evil” behavior in prison life, the senior author of this video, Phil Zimbardo, a social psychology researcher, has turned his attentions toward more positive human interactions. And the junior author, Bill Roller, an accomplished group co-therapist (Roller & Nelson, 1991), was inspired by his previous in-depth DVD interview with Daniel Ellsberg and Phil Zimbardo (Brabender, 2014) to bring the knowledge and skills of group therapy to demonstrating the social underpinnings of heroic behavior. The authors’ joint efforts bear fruit in this productive collaboration, with each providing separate yet overlapping knowledge of human interaction research (social psychology) International Journal of Group Psychotherapy, 68: 124–131, 2018 Copyright © The American Group Psychotherapy Association, Inc. ISSN: 0020-7284 print/1943-2836 online DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/00207284.2017.1375348