Abigail (Abby) Marsh
👤 SpeakerAppearances Over Time
Podcast Appearances
It's not something you ever completely grow out of.
And I think if we can adopt the same mentality when thinking of the needs of other people that we would when we're thinking about the needs of children, we would be much more inspired to help.
The capacity to work through your fear and frightening situations is a capacity that can be developed.
And there's pretty good evidence to suggest that people are more capable of acting bravely in dangerous situations when they've been in enough dangerous situations to be able to manage their fear and to have a good sense that they can handle it, right?
There's nothing like learning by experience that I've been in a dangerous situation, I felt scared, but it was okay.
I managed and I got through to the other side and I did what I wanted to do.
And so the more that we can expose ourselves to challenges and risks that give us the experience of feeling afraid and it being okay in the end, the more likely we are to act the way we want to in dangerous situations, including those when somebody else is in danger.
I think it's really quite interesting how often Hollywood actors who are action heroes leap in to help other people from danger, with Danny Trejo being one example, but the actors Jamie Foxx and Tom Cruise and Kate Winslet and...
There's an enormous number of celebrities who have helped real-life people in danger.
And I think it's not a 0% chance that that's because they have acted out, acting heroically in dangerous situations many times previously.
Changing your behavior comes before changing your mindset.
People often think, well, I need to change the way I feel about a situation before I change the way I act, when often it's the reverse.
Really, you have to just start doing the thing you want to do, and your brain, your mind, your mood will catch up later.
And so the best way to become more altruistic is to just start.