Roger Giner-Sorolla: On the Traits and Treatment of Occupations Judged as Heroic

Goldsmiths Psychology is pleased to welcome Professor Roger Giner-Sorolla, University of Kent, to talk On the Traits and Treatment of Occupations Judged as Heroic

The COVID pandemic provided a vivid example of an occupation not usually seen as "heroic" - healthcare workers - being elevated to the role of literally applauded "heroes" in public discourse. With this elevation came worries that hero status would serve as an excuse to justify low pay and dangerous treatment, because heroes shouldn't complain. Early studies seemed to bear out this interpretation, but I will present our recent research on representative UK samples, which tells a different story. Across five main studies and several pretests, we tested the correlates of hero perceptions in a variety of occupations. Outcomes included support for grievances, impunity, suppression criticism, and other socially relevant outcomes. Correlational results showed no ironic effects of heroism, and in fact the opposite - heroised jobs were more supported in their grievances, and thought more vulnerable. As for manipulations of hero status, these generally only worked on jobs without crystallised notions of heroism - for example, psychiatrists and underwater welders. But among these susceptible occupations, rhetoric focusing on heroic traits, including helpfulness and riskiness of the job, reproduced the effects shown in the correlational studies.

Roger Giner-Sorolla is Professor of Social Psychology at the University of Kent. His research covers moral and social thought and emotions, covering such topics as anger, disgust, guilt, shame, dehumanization, apologies, and ironic enjoyment of music. He is also an open science advocate, co-author of a popular preregistration template used by the Open Science Framework, and currently a member of the supervisory panel of the journal Social Psychological and Personality Science.

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