Individual, situational, and contextual Factors Affecting Civil Courage Actions: A Literature Review

• In Event: How Individuals Learn to Engage

Abstract

Growing interest in civil courage, both in practice and theory, has been observed in the last decade. The study of civil courage allows us to understand the motives and conditions for civic engagement while also pinpointing the growing societal challenges of intolerance and polarization. Civil courage can be defined as (1) an act to help (2) other living beings and (3) at the risk of personal disadvantages (Willems, 2022).
While valuable research has explored the concept of civil courage (Greitemeyer et al., 2007; Osswald et al., 2010), literature on the factors that influence such actions remains fragmented. This is because of the scattered nature of research on influencing factors, which are spread across concepts such as moral courage, helping behavior, prosocial behavior, the bystander effect, and whistleblowing (Fischer et al., 2018; Frey et al., 2001; Greitemeyer et al., 2006). Additionally, language barriers, disciplinary boundaries, and practical knowledge, which lack scientific publication, hinder a comprehensive understanding of the factors influencing civil courage. Research on civil courage is often published in non-English sources, spanning psychology, political science, sociology, ethics, and philosophy.
Consequently, the purpose of this article is to synthesize findings about factors that support or hinder people from engaging (or not) in civil courage. We analyzed English and German articles, book sections, and theses that (1) elaborate the supporting or hindering factors of civil courage as well as related concepts (e.g., moral courage, bystander effect, prosocial behavior, whistleblowing) and (2) are relevant and impactful from a policy perspective. We focus on empirical studies, even though we integrate theoretical articles if they were particularly impactful.
Research has shown that civil courage is determined by multiple factors (Kinnunen et al., 2016), with the most comprehensive model being presented by Meyer (2004, 2014), and the most recent by Halmburger et al. (2017). By compiling and analyzing these models and integrating contemporary research, we present a framework of the individual, situational, and contextual factors of civil courage.
Individual factors include personality (e.g., Backes et al., 2014), competencies such as self-efficacy (Osswald et al., 2012), socialization (Meyer & Herrmann, 2002), values such as social value orientation (Van Lange et al., 1997), justice sensitivity (Niesta Kayser et al., 2010; Schmitt et al., 2009), and emotions such as anger (Greitemeyer et al., 2006; Osswald et al., 2012).
Situational factors include characteristics of the situation, such as time pressure (Darley & Batson, 1973), risks (Fischer et al., 2006, 2011; Meyer, 2004), characteristics of the bystanders, such as pluralistic ignorance (Latane & Nida, 1981) and diffusion of responsibility (Frey et al., 2001; Latane & Nida, 1981), and characteristics of the involved people (Meyer, 2004).
The contextual factors that influence civil courage are the characteristics of the political system, public discourse (Meyer, 2004, 2014), media (Galdi et al., 2017), culture (Carlo & Padilla-Walker, 2020), and social and economic contexts (Meyer, 2004).
In this article, we provide a comprehensive understanding of the current state of knowledge. This framework provides implications and directions for future research and policymaking to better facilitate civil courage.

References

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Authors

• Anahid Aghamanoukjan, FernFH Distance Learning University of Applied Science

• Jurgen Willems, Vienna University of Economics and Business