We tend to think of heroes as larger-than-life figures who accomplish
physical feats, such as the man who pulled two women
trapped in a car from the Colorado floods, or the policeman who rescued a
woman and her two children from the mall under fire in Nairobi. And those
rescuers are indeed heroic, but we should also be thinking about people like
47-year old Antoinette Tuff. Tuff, in case you haven’t heard, is the school
clerk in Decatur, GA who talked school shooter Michael Brandon Hill into
dropping his AK-47 last month and likely averted a Newtown-scale tragedy. Tuff
is actually fairly characteristic of many real-life heroes—she’s an ordinary
person, but her outlook, beliefs and experiences had prepared her to rise to the
challenge of an extraordinary situation.
Like many people who later become heroes or career altruists,
Antoinette Tuff has made it through her share of rough times. In 2012, her
husband left her after 33 years, and she has struggled to raise a son with multiple disabilities.
Heroes are often notable for their determination to lead a meaningful life in
the face of challenges. University of Winnipeg psychologist Jeremy Frimer and
his colleague Lawrence Walker report that heroes are more likely than others to
view their life stories in redemptive terms—if they suffer a loss or defeat,
they may draw strength from it instead of just viewing it as a setback.
It was her deep inner conviction that we can persevere in spite of
difficulties that prompted Tuff to relate to the school shooter as a fellow
human being. “You know, I tried to commit suicide last year after my husband
left me,” she told Hill, according to the transcript of her 911 call.
“But look at me now. I’m still working and everything is okay. It’s gonna be all
right, sweetheart. I just want you to know that I love you, though, okay?”
Convinced Tuff understood what he was facing, Hill was so moved that he laid his
weapon down.
As Tuff’s heroic feat captivated media all over the world, she used
her newfound fame to start raising money for inner-city kids. “Proceeds will be
used to provide travel for underprivileged children,” she wrote on her fund’s website. “If you change their
vision, you can change their lives.” At press time, the fund had raised more
than $110,000. Stanford psychologist Phil Zimbardo’s surveys reveal that heroism
and generosity often overlap, as in Tuff’s case: Altruists like committed
volunteers are more likely to be heroes, and conversely, heroes are more likely
to take part in social service. While heroes may take unusual risks that
altruists do not, the core motivation to improve other people’s prospects is the
same, which is why Zimbardo believes practicing everyday selfless acts may
prepare us for heroic intervention later on.
Finally, Tuff was not a “first responder” per se, but as an employee
of the DeKalb County school district, she had gone through emergency training
where she had to practice dealing with potential intruders. “The training is so
often and extensive they thought [the actual situation] was a drill,” district
spokesman Quinn Hudson told CNN. Rehearsing how and
what to do in certain situations greatly increases your ability to act under
stress. In fact, one study found that people
who intervened to help others at a moment’s notice had often had some type of
lifesaving training beforehand.
Our traditional conceptions of heroes (male, muscle-bound,
unflappable) are far too narrow. A University of Chicago study reveals that
women overall actually tend to perform more heroic acts than their male
counterparts, although men receive more heroism awards like the Carnegie Medal.
Yes, men are more apt to engage in extreme risk-taking, but women feel compelled
to take certain risks to serve others—whether that means donating a kidney,
providing medical care in a Third World country, or reaching out to a troubled
young man with a gun. The prototypical hero with a Y chromosome is little more
than a comic book fantasy; in the real world, people of every gender,
background, and temperament are capable of coming through heroically when it
counts.
Elizabeth Svoboda is the author of What Makes a Hero?: The Surprising Science
of Selflessness, now out from Current.
Time
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