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Who intervenes when Jews or Muslims are persecuted? : Replicating a profile pattern from Holocaust rescuers

Lindén, Magnus LU ; Björklund, Fredrik LU orcid and Wilkes, George (2025) In Heroism Science 10(2).
Abstract
Do the characteristics that motivated non-Jews to rescue Jews during the Holocaust also predict morally courageous intentions in today’s high school students? Swedish students (N = 231) completed a survey assessing parental role modelling, empathic concern, risk-taking, and identification with outgroups, indicating whether they would intervene to help persecuted Jews and Muslims in various scenarios. All factors significantly predicted intention to intervene, but parental role modelling became insignificant in a hierarchical regression. Risk-taking explained most variance, followed by empathic concern. There was also an interaction between parental role modelling and empathic concern. The findings suggest that Holocaust rescuers’... (More)
Do the characteristics that motivated non-Jews to rescue Jews during the Holocaust also predict morally courageous intentions in today’s high school students? Swedish students (N = 231) completed a survey assessing parental role modelling, empathic concern, risk-taking, and identification with outgroups, indicating whether they would intervene to help persecuted Jews and Muslims in various scenarios. All factors significantly predicted intention to intervene, but parental role modelling became insignificant in a hierarchical regression. Risk-taking explained most variance, followed by empathic concern. There was also an interaction between parental role modelling and empathic concern. The findings suggest that Holocaust rescuers’ characteristics are generalizable to students facing situations requiring moral courage. More effort should be made to understand how ethical role models in childhood impact empathy

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Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
; and
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
morality, courage, risk taking, social identity, empathy, parental role modeling, Holocaust
in
Heroism Science
volume
10
issue
2
article number
3
pages
22 pages
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
2ffb3d82-7a8b-4a2a-ac82-1401509e51ed
alternative location
https://scholarship.richmond.edu/heroism-science/vol10/iss2/3/
date added to LUP
2025-10-09 08:57:40
date last changed
2025-10-24 15:16:53
@article{2ffb3d82-7a8b-4a2a-ac82-1401509e51ed,
  abstract     = {{Do the characteristics that motivated non-Jews to rescue Jews during the Holocaust also predict morally courageous intentions in today’s high school students? Swedish students (N = 231) completed a survey assessing parental role modelling, empathic concern, risk-taking, and identification with outgroups, indicating whether they would intervene to help persecuted Jews and Muslims in various scenarios. All factors significantly predicted intention to intervene, but parental role modelling became insignificant in a hierarchical regression. Risk-taking explained most variance, followed by empathic concern. There was also an interaction between parental role modelling and empathic concern. The findings suggest that Holocaust rescuers’ characteristics are generalizable to students facing situations requiring moral courage. More effort should be made to understand how ethical role models in childhood impact empathy<br/><br/>}},
  author       = {{Lindén, Magnus and Björklund, Fredrik and Wilkes, George}},
  keywords     = {{morality; courage; risk taking; social identity; empathy; parental role modeling; Holocaust}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  month        = {{10}},
  number       = {{2}},
  series       = {{Heroism Science}},
  title        = {{Who intervenes when Jews or Muslims are persecuted? : Replicating a profile pattern from Holocaust rescuers}},
  url          = {{https://scholarship.richmond.edu/heroism-science/vol10/iss2/3/}},
  volume       = {{10}},
  year         = {{2025}},
}