Conceptions of heroic leadership in civil society

While nations face multiple disruptions to civil society, individuals in late adolescence and early adulthood are overlooked for heroic leadership opportunities in some cultures. An underestimation of individuals’ abilities is sometimes fostered by biological definitions of human development that align competence with physical changes in the brain (Blakemore, 2012). Prolonged exposure to such disregard can encourage individuals to restrict the information they notice, fostering distortion in the intentions that support leadership readiness (Pratkanis, 2007). Studies of individuals’ conceptions of how the world operates can improve leadership readiness if such evidence is used to verify that individuals notice essential information. Using this logic to explore undergraduates’ readiness for heroic leadership, a highly diverse sample of individuals in late adolescence and early adulthood shared their understanding of human rights and civil society. These trait-focused conceptions were then compared with dispositional conceptions of heroism to explore variance in undergraduates’ readiness to embrace heroic opportunities.