Heroic individuals who risk their lives to save strangers really do act without a second thought, research has shown.
In fact they do not seem to deliberate at all before stepping in.
Scientists studied 51 statements made by recipients of the Carnegie Hero Medal, a US award given to civilian life-savers.
Human ‘judges’ as well as computer software were used to analyse the statements for evidence of intuitive or deliberate actions.
US lead researcher David Rand, from Yale University, said: “We wondered if people who act with extreme altruism do so without thinking, or if conscious self-control is needed to override negative emotions like fear.
Heroic acts may be largely motivated by an automatic, intuitive process
“Our analyses show that extreme altruists report acting first and thinking later.”
This was true even in situations where a life-saver would have had sufficient time to deliberate before acting.
The findings, published in the online journal Public Library of Science One, suggest that heroic acts may be largely motivated by an automatic, intuitive process.
However, Rand added that heroes were still likely to be made, not born.
People learn that helping others is typically in their own long-term self-interest and develop intuitive habits of cooperation, he said.