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The Psychology Of Heroism By Carla Field

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The Downside to Heroism
Everyone has seen a hero somehow in their life and been inspired. Whether they’re from a television show, book, or maybe in real life, heroes are everywhere and display a number of desirable traits. Although many heroes are depicted as selfless, brave, and strategic, seeing these people as idols can also be damaging to society and how things are perceived in the real world by presenting violence to impressionable youth and showing unrealistic and negative traits in oneself.

The definition of heroism has been heavily researched in the meaning of how heroes with their specific personality traits can think negatively and go through certain experiences impractically. For example, the article, “The Psychology of Heroism” …show more content…

Young kids look up to people on the big screen and others see heroes' brave traits and are inspired. The idea of seeing a strong, perceptive human in some form of entertainment may seem positive for society, though, there is always a negative side. To start off, the article, “How often are guns used to stop crimes?” by Carla Field discusses a slightly different topic on how guns have negative and positive effects on society. Nevertheless, this correlates to the obstructive mentalities heroes convey and display to society. Many individuals have certain personalities similar to or inspired by the heroic mindset leading them to choose life or death with individuals in the event of the usage of guns against others. The article states from executive vice president and CEO of the NRA, “The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun.” (Carla Field) This is an entirely unrealistic statement and really conveys the possible god complex certain human beings have when shown a dangerous situation. There is no factual evidence that can be given to back up the statement that every time there is a bad person with a gun, a good person armed can play life and death and save the situation. This heroic mentality displayed to the world by heroes creates a damaging false narrative of life presented to youth and society constantly. To summarize, Violence is never the answer and seeing heroes be in violence constantly, as well as killing others for the greater good is showing society an unsafe and delusory way to

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