The Hero with a Thousand Faces*

In July of 2010, I was invited to Washington to discuss changes in public messaging. Several federal agencies organized the Summit at the Red Cross headquarters including FEMA, Save the Children, Red Cross and many leaders from state and local disaster organizations. Participants were arranged in small groups at round tables with a facilitator at every table who captured the discussion to pre-arranged open ended questions. A group of speakers opened the summit with several talks about the need to change public messaging with the challenge for the group to be creative and brainstorm possible changes. Then, we got to work in our groups. A lot of good thinking and discussion, filtered through the facilitators and captured on large pads on easels occurred. At the end of the day, promises were made that there would be changes to the historical public messages of “Be Disaster Ready,” (Red Cross) or “Be Informed, Make a Plan, Build a Kit.” (FEMA) or the “See Something, Say Something,” (Department of Homeland Security.) Several months passed and the final decision was to maintain the status quo and to lean heavily on “See Something, Say Something,” as a generic message to the public. Despite all the input and creativity, nothing changed.

I have thought many times about public messaging related to emergencies and disasters. I was disappointed that the considerable effort in 2010 did not lead to substantial changes in public messaging.

Recently, I learned in an April 2015 survey on preparedness, that 60 percent of American adults have not practiced what to do in a disaster at home or work. Part of our current public messaging makes a declaration, “Be Informed, Make a Plan, Build a Kit.” FEMA’s website is loaded with valuable information on how to do this, yet the declaration just doesn’t seem to stick. In similar fashion, “Be Disaster Ready,” from the Red Cross is another message that just doesn’t seem to broadly take hold. And, the “See Something, Say Something,” message falls short by not saying what to look for and to say what to whom.

I’d like propose something different. In July 2010, I suggested a different proposal which I’ll outline here but sort of got a “deer in the headlight” look. Since then, it’s always been in the back of my head to write about it. So, here goes. I want to talk about the importance of constructing messages through language to create culture and then move into my suggestion and why I think it is important.

The Power of Language is Transformational

The power of language is transformational. A new social construction of homeland security will require a change in our language we use to be more inclusive and welcoming to the community, to both internal and external customers. Many in homeland security have focused for years on improving conversations. We have known that dialogue and communication are important tools for improvement and engagement and some believe that all transformation is linguistic. A good place to shift for transformation may be in the way we use language to unite or divide. If we want a change in culture, for example, the work is to change the conversation — or, more precisely, to have a conversation that we have not had before, one that has the power to create something new in the world. This insight forces us to question the value of our stories, the positions we take, our love of the past, and our way of being in the world. It also invites us to have a conversation with the American people using plain language — language that is simple and easy to understand.

The important insight for the homeland security practitioner is that even subtle changes in words used in communication are important to keep in mind. The words, “survivor” and “victim” were often used interchangeably during Hurricane Katrina and during the attacks on the World Trade Center but the meaning carries a different message. The word “survivor” speaks to resiliency and hope and the word “victim” speaks to helplessness and doom. Over the long haul of time, the subtlety of language has powerful results and is an important part of the construction of a homeland security ecosystem that is more about resiliency than helplessness.

Communication can be used to foster collaboration or to divide. An examination of the language we use and the social networks in which we communicate are important. We now have communications tools that are flexible enough to match our social capabilities, and we are witnessing the rise of new ways of coordinating action that take advantage of this change.

Our society is living in the middle of a remarkable increase in our ability to share, to cooperate with one another, and to take collective action, all outside the framework of traditional institutions and organizations. New and continuing evolving communication tools for interaction provide the capability for collaborative action by loosely structured groups, without managerial direction, outside of government and outside the profit motive. On the surface, one might surmise that the challenge for homeland security is to do social media better but the substantive challenge is to make organizations within and outside of homeland security more human.

Homeland security practitioners must navigate this environment and match these communication tools with language that is plain and understandable by the general public. Malcolm Gladwell calls this the “stickiness factor,” or changes in language that is specific to making a message contagious. The stickiness factor says that there are specific ways of making a contagious message memorable; there are relatively simple changes in the presentation and structuring of information that can make a big difference in how much of an impact it makes. That is the paradox of the epidemic: that in order to create one contagious movement, you often have to create many small movements first. Small movements that are very personal and really hit home to an individual and the community.

Homeland security practitioners at all levels of government have attempted to create impactful messaging that ‘catches on’ but the hard part is how to socially construct messaging that doesn’t go in one ear and out the other. The homeland security enterprise has held information close to its chest as closely guarded secrets, seldom shared with the public. Homeland security’s current messaging is constructed around orders and commands; for example, “Be Disaster Ready” or “Be Informed, Make a Plan, Build a Kit, Get Involved,” or “See Something, Say Something.”

Here’s My Suggestion and Why I Think it Can Initiate Desired Behavior

“When it comes to your family and those you love, who will be the hero?”

Let me unpack this and tell you why I think this is an effective public message. It is effective for the following reasons:

· It asks a question that requires an answer

· It is an invitation

· The message invokes the emotions of love for family and community

· It builds on the American construct of heroism

· It uses the psychological construct of the “consistency principle”

The Power of Asking Questions

Thinking is not driven by answers but by questions. This alternative message “When it comes to your family and those you love, who will be the hero?” asks a question, which by its very nature requires a response. For most of our lives, we’ve learned by asking questions. It is the simplest and most effective way of learning because the person asking the question has a desire to learn or at least find out the answer. Creative thinkers often use “what if,” questions to spur the creative juices and the single most important habit for innovative thinkers. Questions drive our thought underneath the surface of things and forces us to deal with complexity. Questions force us to examine our assumptions and in regards to the consistency principle, examined in a few paragraphs to come, forces us to examine our thinking for contradictions.

The Power of Invitation

Ministers and clergy of all types know the power of an invitation and so do groups of all kinds. People simply liked being asked to do something instead of being told. An invitation is relational. It exudes a sense of relation and community. An invitation is intimate. Just supplying information to the public is not intimate but an invitation to ‘join in’ or ‘join us’ is and right off the bat establishes a sense of fellowship.

The Power of Love for Family and Community

Agape love represents our unconditional love for humanity with the willingness to sacrifice your life for those you love. Love is a concept of vulnerability. According to Brene Brown in her book, Daring Greatly, people are psychologically, emotionally, cognitively, and spiritually hardwired for connection, love, and belonging. When this hardwiring gets connected to a question about one’s family or community’s safety, it becomes a powerful motivator for action.

The Powerful Construct of Heroism

The way to love anything is to realize that it might be lost.

— G. K. CHESTERTON

So, what makes certain people take heroic actions in the face of great danger? Consider this act of heroism as a good example.

On January 2, 2007, approximately 75 people waiting at a busy subway station watched as a young man suffered a seizure and then fell from the platform onto the subway tracks. Onlookers watched in horror yet did nothing, but a man named Wesley Autry took action.

Handing his two young daughters to a stranger, he leapt down onto the tracks hoping to have time to drag the man out of the way of an oncoming train. When Autry realized that there was no time to move the other man, he instead held him down between the tracks as a train passed over the top of them.

“I don’t feel like I did something spectacular; I just saw someone who needed help. I did what I felt was right,” he told The New York Times after the incident.

Heroism is something that is deeply valued across cultures, but how exactly do we define a hero?

“Wars and temper tantrums are the makeshifts of ignorance; regrets are illuminations come too late.” ― Joseph Campbell

The Definition of a Hero

The ancient and modern Hellenic word for hero is ‘ieros’ (pronounced ee-ros). The etymology of the word in the ancient language is not certain although it may derive from a very ancient prefix ‘cer-‘ meaning ‘to protect’ or ‘to preserve’.

What Is Heroism?

According to the Heroic Imagination Project, a non-profit organization that focuses on teaching people to become heroes, heroism involves a behavior or action on behalf of another person or for a moral cause.

They identify four key elements of heroism:

• It’s voluntary
• It is done in the service of people or communities in need
• It involves some type of risk, either physical, social, or in terms of quality of life
• It is done without the need for recompense or material gain

What Makes a Person a Hero?

So now that we know a bit more about what heroism is, the question shifts to exactly why people become heroes? Are there any characteristics of heroism that these individuals seem to share? In a piece published on the Psychology Today website, psychologist Frank Farley made a distinction between what he calls “big H” heroism and “small h heroism.” Big H heroism “involves significant risk, which could include death, injury, imprisonment, or other serious or significant consequences,” he explains. Small h heroism, on the other hand, “is everyday heroism, helping others, doing good deeds, showing kindness, etc., where serious harm or major consequences are not usually a result.”Farley suggests that there are two key factors underlying the grand acts of heroism that involve a risk of personal harm: risk-taking behavior and generosity. People who risk their lives in the service of another are naturally more likely to take greater risks and they also possess a great deal of compassion, kindness, empathy, and altruism.

In an article that appeared in a 2004 issues of American Psychologist, researchers Selwyn Becker and Alice Eagly suggested that heroism might also have a more self-serving purpose as a means to ensure status. In other words, sometimes engaging in self-sacrificing behavior can lead to long-term rewards.

Researchers have long known that both people and animals are more likely to help those to whom they are genetically related, a concept known as kin selection. By helping those who share our genes, we help ensure the likelihood that those genes will be passed on to future generations. In others cases, we help others with the expectation that someday they might help us in return, an idea known as reciprocal altruism.

The Power of the “Consistency Principle”

Robert Cialdini in his book, Influence discusses the “consistency principle,” as a major motivator of human behavior. He highlights a study done by two Canadian psychologists that uncovered something fascinating about people at the racetrack: Just after placing a bet, they are much more confident of their horse’s chances of winning than they are immediately before laying down that bet.

Of course, nothing about the horse’s chances actually shifts; it’s the same horse, on the same track, in the same field; but in the minds of those bettors, its prospects improve significantly once that ticket is purchased.

Although a bit puzzling at first glance, the reason for the dramatic change has to do with a common weapon of social influence. Like the other weapons of influence, this one lies deep within us, directing our actions with quiet power. It is, quite simply, our nearly obsessive desire to be (and to appear) consistent with what we have already done.

Once we have made a choice or taken a stand, we will encounter personal and interpersonal pressures to behave consistently with that commitment.

Those pressures will cause us to respond in ways that justify our earlier decision. Indeed, we all fool ourselves from time to time in order to keep our thoughts and beliefs consistent with what we have already done or decided. Psychologists have long understood the power of the consistency principle to direct human action. Many prominent social theorists see consistency as a central motivator of our behavior. To understand why consistency is so powerful a motive, it is important to recognize that in most circumstances consistency is valued and adaptive. Inconsistency is commonly thought to be an undesirable personality trait. The person whose beliefs, words, and deeds don’t match may be seen as indecisive, confused, two-faced, or even mentally ill. On the other side, a high degree of consistency is normally associated with personal and intellectual strength. It is at the heart of logic, rationality, stability, and honesty.

To bring this full circle, the question, “When it comes to your family and those you love, who will be the hero?” utilizes the consistency principle because once a person begins to act on their behalf for their family or community, they are very likely follow through so that their behavior is consistent with what they have already done or say they will do.

To sum up, communication is vitally important to all human relationships. When it comes to trying to get the public to act on its own behalf for disasters, it can be life saving. Anyone can be a hero…as Dr. Zimbardo says, “be the hero in your own story.” Getting the message or question just right has life saving consequences.

Angi English has a Master’s in Security Studies from the Naval Postgraduate School’s Center for Homeland Defense and Security and a Master’s in Educational Psychology from Baylor University. She lives in Austin, Texas.

*The Title of the piece, “The Hero with A Thousand Faces,” is a tribute to Joseph Campbell who wrote a book by the same title in 1949 that discusses the archetypal hero found in mythology. In 2011, Time placed the book on the 100 best and most influential books written in English since 1923.