Bystander Intervention Requires Hopeful Intentions

Theresa A. Thorkildsen, Ph.D., Professor of Education and Psychology, University of Illinois Chicago

Sarah Khan, Undergraduate in Neuroscience, University of Illinois Chicago

When Stan Lee popularized the phrase “with great power comes great responsibility” in his 1962 Spider-Man comics, he called forth origins of crisis evident in the bible, Ancient Greece, The French Revolution, and British Parliament while honoring speakers such as Winston Churchill and Franklin D. Roosevelt.  By popularizing Lee’s original comics, young adults demonstrate that global and community development depends on everyday heroism, not just dramatic acts during a crisis.  Responding to one another in everyday settings with courage, care, and moral commitment, young adults display heroic forms of activism that often go unrecognized.  As scholar-activists, members of our Intentional Systems Lab seek to improve how the intentions of emerging voters and future professionals are observed and tracked as they regulate their personal, civic, and civil engagement.  We also seek to improve how well we track ordinary forms of bystander intervention that unfold in families, neighborhoods, nation-states, and across the globe.

Improvements in observation and tracking convey how hopeful intentions have power, even when individuals remain unaware of the power they hold.  Powerful social action is supported by naming the features of individuals’ intentions; tracking various indicators; and noting when, where, and how heroic intentions are observed.  Starting with situations that offer voluntary opportunities to explore, play, and problem-solve, we first distinguished the concept of learned helplessness commonly described in research on bystander intervention from the wisdom inherent in a hierarchical quest by novices to learn from and with experts.  Sport and leisure are ideal social spheres for this type of research because activities differ in whether they include codified rules.  Activities also differ in how norms are enforced and enacted.  Likewise, young adults, knowingly or otherwise, engage in personal, civic, and civil discourse and such discourse unfolds with or without their direct participation.  Young adults are learning that societal discourse distinguishes personal and family priorities from engagement with specific social causes as well as from the regulatory and communicative features of civil society.  Hopeful intentions gain power as young adults control and direct their thoughts, feelings, and actions toward the common good.

Placing decision-making power directly in the hands of young adults, our research volunteers choose when and how to share their perspectives.  Our research team compares features of various intentional systems by constructing and testing intentional models.  The third-person perspectives that unfold when first- and second-person accounts of everyday activities are subject to statistical evaluation are then critiqued.  The social value of an intentional model may be evaluated in its entirety or by deconstructing the features of the model.  The historical conditions and timelines in which such intentions become salient can also be evaluated and potentially altered over time.

In our first model of everyday heroic intentions, we found clear differences in how young adults prioritized personal, civic, and civil reasons for enjoyment during sport and leisure activities.  Likewise, young adults prioritized heroic dispositions, aspirations, and volition differently.  We now see how routine forms of adventure potentially generates joyful intentions that give power to bystander intervention.  Going forward, it will be interesting to notice and track when behavior corresponds with such intentions.

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