Courageous altruism: Personal and situational correlates of rescue during the Holocaust

Abstract

This study investigated whether positive personality variables associated with the character strengths of courage and kindness, when examined in the context of situational and demographic variables, distinguish Holocaust-era courageous altruists from bystanders. Seventy-nine non-Jewish rescuers and 73 non-Jewish bystanders were administered measures of empathic concern, social responsibility, risk-taking, altruistic moral reasoning, and perceived marginality. Situational variables included wartime living arrangements, history of persecution, previous experience with Jews, and whether an individual had been asked for help. A two-group discriminant function analysis was able to correctly classify 96.1% of the sample, separating the rescuers and bystanders by more than three standard deviations. The discriminant function was best defined by social responsibility, altruistic moral reasoning, empathic concern, and risk-taking. Implications are discussed regarding the relationship between character strengths and altruistic behavior. Whosoever preserves one life is as though he has preserved the entire world. Talmudic inscription on the medallion bestowed by Yad Vashem to Righteous Gentiles