Finding Moral Courage

We tend to think of moral courage as something that’s only available to a handful of exceptionally brave people when, in fact, it’s actually available to us all.

According to the authors of a recent study published in the Journal of Personality, given the right circumstances, we can all be that morally courageous person who steps up to do the right thing, even if it’s hard.

Especially if it’s hard….

What follows are a few key findings from their research.

What it means to practice moral courage

The authors of this study (a group of researchers from the University of Wuppertal and the Max-Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods, both in Germany) define moral courage as the quality that is exhibited when we are moved to action by a perceived violation of our moral principles—and in situations where it may be harmful as opposed to beneficial to ourselves to become involved. In other words, we’re willing to take a stand because we believe that something really important is at stake. It’s about upholding and protecting moral norms—norms that we believe are worth defending.

As the authors note: “Our everyday lives might be rich with opportunities for morally courageous behavior when we witness unfairness, harassment, discrimination, bullying, ostracism, dishonesty, corruption, violence, or other illegal, harmful, and norm-violating behavior.”

When we’re most likely to demonstrate moral courage

We’re more likely to demonstrate moral courage in certain types of situations

• if the norm violation we have observed is pretty blatant
• if we believe that it is our responsibility to become involved
• if we feel confident that, if we do become involved, our intervention is likely to be effective
• if the perceived risk to ourselves doesn’t feel completely overwhelming

We’re also more likely to take action if a particular moral transgression causes us to react with anger, not fear. Anger tends to be mobilizing whereas fear may cause us to retreat.

The good news

Sometimes we surprise ourselves—for better and for worse. We’re not always great at predicting how we’re going to respond to a particular situation until we’re in that exact situation. The good news? Even people who might typically describe themselves as risk aversive have the capacity to demonstrate moral courage. Moral courage isn’t a fixed personality trait. It’s something much more fluid.

The bad news

Of course, this can sometimes play out in regrettable ways, like when we make a conscious decision not to do the right thing.

We convince ourselves that this isn’t our problem—that it doesn’t have anything to do with us at all—or we tell ourselves that someone else will deal with it so we’re free to walk away.

What we’re talking about here is moral disengagement: an all-too-human quality that allows you to violate your own moral principles without feeling bad about yourself.

Making a big difference for another person

There’s always an element of risk involved when you’re practicing moral courage. As the researchers explain, “Confronting a perpetrator could not only lead to verbal or physical retaliation, but also ridicule or social exclusion.” There can also be a lot of time and energy involved in deciding what action, if any, to take, which explains why so many people choose to look away instead of getting involved. (An earlier study found that university students who happened to witness norm violations only chose to intervene 15% of the time.)

All that said, even a seemingly small act of moral courage can make a big difference for another person. Speaking up to say “That’s not okay” when you witness an act of bullying is a way to offer support to the victim while reducing the likelihood that the bad behaviour will continue or be repeated. In most cases, this is exactly how people choose to become involved—by addressing a perpetrator verbally (the method of intervention used in roughly three-quarters of situations where someone chose to intervene).

The key takeaway from this study? “Everyday life is rich with opportunities for moral courage.”