Why Honor Heroes? The emergence of extreme altruistic behavior as a by-product of praisers' self-promotion

TL;DR

This paper explores how extreme altruistic acts and their celebration by audiences co-emerge, driven by social signaling and self-promotion motives, rather than purely altruistic intent.

Contribution

It introduces a model explaining the simultaneous emergence of heroic behavior and public praise as a form of social signaling for self-promotion.

Findings

Heroic acts are motivated by social signaling rather than pure altruism.

Public praise functions as a social signal to promote the praiseer's commitment to shared values.

The model explains the winner-take-all nature of extreme altruistic behavior.

Abstract

Heroes are people who perform costly altruistic acts. Few people turn out to be heroes, but many spontaneously honor heroes by commenting, applauding, or enthusiastically celebrating their deeds. The existence of a praising audience leads individuals to compete to attract the crowd's admiration. The outcome is a winner-take-all situation in which only one or a few individuals engage in extreme altruistic behavior. The more difficult part is to explain the crowd's propensity to pay tribute from an individual fitness optimization perspective. The model proposed here shows how heroic behavior and its celebration by a large audience may emerge together. This situation is possible if admirers use public praise as a social signal to promote their own commitment to the values displayed by the hero.