Perceptions of Heroism: Characteristics, Functions and Influencing Factors among Chinese College Students in the Post-pandemic Era

Abstract

Heroes play a significant role in shaping the popular perceptions of morality, justice, and social values in general. During the Covid-19 pandemic, people’s anticipation for heroes doubles and their heroism may be reshaped by the pandemic. This paper attempts to investigate the perceived heroism of Chinese higher education students(n=847) in the post-pandemic era by means of the online questionnaire. Firstly, we explore the main characteristics of heroes worshipped by Chinese higher education students, which are summarized as diversified, epoch-making and civilian. Then we investigate the functions of heroes, which are categorized as enhancing, moral modeling and protecting. Finally, we analyze the five factors (intrinsic attraction, social reinforcement, education, family background and publicity) that may predict students’ heroism worship. As the regression analysis reveals, the five factors have significantly positive influences on higher education students’ perceptions of heroism and the weights of intrinsic attraction, social reinforcement, publicity, family background and education are 0.364, 0.316, 0.227, 0.190 and 0.156 respectively. These findings not only provide a theoretical and empirical contribution to the study of heroism, but also help develop Chinese higher education sustainable development in the post-pandemic era.