The research first investigated the prototypical features of heroes (i.e., in your own view, what are the features that you associate with heroes and heroic actions), and determined which features were most important in the prototype of heroes among Chinese participants. We found that some exemplars, such as heroes should love their country, related to the feature of patriotism, have been reported frequently by Chinese participants. However, the feature of patriotism was not mentioned by previous prototype analyses of heroes among Western participants.
We argued that one reason could be the different cultural values people hold. People from collectivistic cultures are more likely to define themselves as aspects of groups and to prioritize in-group goals. Patriotism, at a group level, fulfills important functions for building group unity and mobilizing individuals to act in ways that will favor their group or country.
Our subsequent studies revealed both cultural differences and similarities in lay conceptions of heroes between Chinese and American participants. For example, the findings demonstrated that Chinese participants rated patriotic, masculine, righteous, dedicated, responsible, respected, and noble as being more related to their personal view of heroes than American participants. In contrast, American participants rated strong, powerful, altruistic, personable, honest, leader, proactive, courageous, caring, and talented as being more related to their personal view of heroes than the Chinese participants. Several features did not discriminate well between the groups: saves, humble, fearless, determined, risk-taker, moral integrity, brave, intelligent, conviction, protects, exceptional, decisive, sacrifice, selfless, helpful, compassionate, and inspiration.
