Civil Courage: People's Reactions to Uncivil Behaviours in Public Settings – Courage

The goal is to develop a theory of civil courage based on empirical research. For this purpose, we integrate two lines of research: The empirical research on people's reaction to norm transgressions and the more theoretical and descriptive approaches to civil courage. More precisely, we will study the variables that cause people to openly display their opposition when they witness incivil or immoral behaviours. In the present view, civil courage is motivated by the perception of incivility as threatening to the stable and efficient functioning of the group or of the society (Schachter, 1951). If this is so, then at least three conditions under which civil courage should increase can be outlined. First, civil courage should increase to the extent that the observed uncivil behaviour is viewed as violating a characteristic or value that is central (rather than peripheral) to the self-concept of the perceiver. Second, civil courage should increase to the extent that the perceiver has cognitive and emotional resources available to actually intervene when witnessing an act of incivility. And third, because deviant acts performed by in-group members generate more shame in the perceiver than deviant acts performed by out-group members, civil courage should increase to the extent that the perpetrator of the act is perceived as sharing social category membership with the perceiver.