We all like to think we’d stand up to defend our loved ones from physical peril or speak up to take a certain moral stance even when it would be easier to stay silent or go with the flow. That we would have the courage of our convictions, no matter what the personal consequences. That we would be brave.
Thankfully, most of us will rarely, if ever, be truly tested in such fashion, but what, exactly, is bravery, and how is it measured?
‘Brave’ or ‘courageous’ are among those words that are thrown around far too casually (especially when it comes to millionaire celebrities and sports stars), but if ever there’s a group more deserving of such monikers it’s the stoic people of Ukraine, their inspirational leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy, and the thousands of anti-war protestors who’ve recently taken to the streets of Russia (more than 15,000 had been arrested as of March).
Of course, there are acts of everyday bravery far less dramatic than facing down the army of a murderous dictator, like plucking up the courage to finally get that business idea rolling, taking that solo trip to a far-flung corner of the world, enrolling as a mature student, or calling time on a toxic relationship for the very last time. Whether it be fighting fires, criminals, or disease, frontline workers put themselves in harm’s way as a matter of course.
The American Courage Index (ACI) measures how entrepreneurs’ various types of courage – think emotional, intellectual, business, or moral – compares with the rest of society. It has found that, overall, business owners tend to harbour more courageous characteristics than the rest of population, while emotional bravery increases for everyone with age.
And what of the role of gender? Throughout history, the traditional (and, some would argue misogynistic, others, noble) view has been that bravery is the duty of the male. A 2001 poll by Gallop revealed 55% of men considered themselves more courageous than women, while only 16% of them believed women to be more bold. Women were a lot more generous to their own, but still considered men to be the braver sex by a margin of 4%. Such opinions seem almost comically outdated two decades later but go back to 1950 and the same poll found 35% of the US public believed boys to be more courageous, with 33% of respondents giving it to the girls and 22% saying the sexes were evenly matched.
…bravery isn’t something we’re necessarily born with, rather something that can be managed like any habit – and it basically boils down to dealing with fear.
Far more recently, an assessment of 75,000 leaders around the world, compiled by leadership consulting business Zenger/Folkm, and published by the Harvard Business Review, concluded women just about edged out the blokes in terms of boldness, ranking in the 52nd percentile, “a few ticks higher than the average men” in the 49th. “While that doesn’t seem like a huge difference,” note the authors, “it stood out to us because ‘men take more risks’ is so ingrained in social science.”
Other research has found that heroic acts throughout history such as aiding Jews during the Holocaust, volunteering for the Peace Corps or overseas medical non-profits, and donating kidneys were all more likely to have been carried out by women. (Research has also proved that women are the stronger sex under extreme conditions, more likely to survive famine, epidemics, and enslavement.)
Whatever the gender, Kate Swoboda, author of The Courage Habit, insists bravery isn’t something we’re necessarily born with, rather something that can be managed like any habit – and it basically boils down to dealing with fear. It’s vital we recognise how it feels to be afraid and learn to tame the resulting urges through mindfulness, says the author, allowing access to fear “without rejecting it or being pulled into an old fear routine”. Fear rarely results from physical peril, but rather that inner critic repeatedly informing us failure is the only way. As with fear, Swoboda encourages that we should listen to that voice rather than ignore it, for listening “without attachment” places us in “a better position to learn from it”.
Expressive writing and creating courageous communities of likeminded souls are further methods of bolstering our boldness. For it is through living with courage, says Swoboda, that we will live lives of greatest fulfilment, “whether that’s embarking on a new relationship or job, of helping to save the world”.
