`영웅'은 무엇으로 만들어지는가?

총알이 빗발치는 전장에서 포탄을 장전하기 위해 몸을 날리는 포병. 불길이 치솟은 건물에 스스럼없이 올라가는 소방관. 총기난사가 발생한 캠퍼스에서 학생들이 도피할 시간을 벌기 위해 범인과 몸싸움을 벌인 교수.

이같은 '영웅'들의 가장 공통된 자질은 무엇일까? 미국 코넬 대학 연구팀은 최근 세계 2차대전에서 영웅적 공로를 인정받아 훈장과 표창을 받은 베테랑 526명을 대상으로 영웅의 유형과 자질을 조사한 결과, 많은 영웅들은 일반적인 인식과 달리 특별히 용감하지도 또 확신에 넘쳐 있지도 않은 '조용하면서도 성실한 타입'이 많은 것으로 확인됐다고 밝혔다.

연구팀은 우선 이들 526명을 대상으로 리더십과 충성심, 자발성과 이타성 등의 속성에 자신이 얼마나 적합한지를 평가하도록 했다. 그 결과 많은 영웅들은 예상대로 리더십과 모험심, 순응력 등을 자신이 갖고 있는 대표적 자질로 꼽았다.

그러나 연구팀이 이들을 '확신에 찬 영웅'과 '망설이는 영웅'으로 분류해 그 자질을 조사했을 때 '망설이는 영웅군'에서는 다른 어떤 속성보다도 이타심과 협동심이 높게 나타났다. 평소 눈에 띄지도, 카리스마가 넘치지도 않던 이들이 영웅적인 행동을 하게 된 데에는 소위 영웅심이라 불리는 정의감이나 용기보다는 책임감과 소속감 등 일반적이고 평범한 속성이 크게 작용했다.

이번 연구를 주도한 코넬 대학의 브라이언 웬싱크 교수는 이같은 연구 결과가 경찰이나 소방관, 군인 등 위험을 동반하는 직업군에 있어서 소속감과 협동심을 기르는 것이 얼마나 중요한지를 재확인시켜줬다고 평가했다.

이같은 '소속감 효과'는 전쟁 영웅들을 다룬 많은 저서를 통해 확인된 바 있다. 2차 세계대전 말 노르망디에 상륙한 미 공수부대 이야기를 다룬 전쟁소설 '밴드 오브 브라더스'의 저자 스테판 E 암브로스는 "이들을 움직인 건 국가도, 깃발도 아닌 서로간의 유대감이었다"며 전장에서 함께 하며 만들어진 '전우애'가 평범한 사람들을 영웅으로 만들었음을 시사한 바 있다.

【뉴욕=AP/뉴시스】

Loyalty a Factor in Heroism

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) - An infantryman charges a pillbox in the face of enemy fire. A firefighter rushes up the stairwell of a burning skyscraper as office workers flee. A teacher shields her student from a schoolyard gunman with her body.

Heroes all. But what personal qualities made them heroic?

In the movies, heroes are charismatic rebels played by the likes of Will Smith or Bruce Willis. But researchers who surveyed decorated World War II veterans found not all heroes are cut from the same swashbuckling cloth. Quiet types with a sense of loyalty and selflessness often have the right stuff, too.

``We often think of the gung-ho, John Wayne 'Sands of Iwo Jima' kind of hero driven to combat,'' said researcher Brian Wansink of Cornell University. ``But there's a whole lot of these heroes that are much more along the lines of that Captain Miller character Tom Hanks played in 'Saving Private Ryan' - the reluctant high school English teacher.''

In a paper to be published in the management-oriented journal The Leadership Quarterly, researchers asked 526 World War II veterans who experienced ``heavy and frequent combat'' to evaluate themselves on qualities such as leadership, loyalty, spontaneity and selflessness. There were 83 men in the group who received a medal for meritorious service or valor - either a Bronze Star, Silver Star, Distinguished Service Cross or Medal of Honor.

Unsurprisingly, veterans who had been awarded medals tended to rate themselves higher for qualities like leadership, adventurousness and adaptability. Results became more intriguing when researchers divided medal earners into two groups: those who enlisted (``eager heroes'') and those who were drafted (``reluctant heroes''). The reluctant heroes scored higher than any other group in selflessness and working well with others.

The study suggests that quiet heroes rely on a deep sense of duty and esprit de corps as opposed to derring-do. That sentiment was echoed by several of the medal-earning veterans interviewed separately for this story.

To a man, they downplayed any notion of heroism.

``You show me a man who says he was brave over there and I'll show you a liar,'' said draftee and Bronze Star recipient William O. Carpenter, 84, of Champaign Ill. ``Every one of us was afraid. Even the Germans were afraid.''

Former paratrooper Charles Murz was shot at more times than he can recall after dropping behind enemy lines in Europe and earning two Bronze Stars. Now 83 and living in East China, Mich., he scoffs at the idea he showed any particular courage.

``Brave? Well, I don't know about that,'' Murz said. ``I did what I had to do at the time that I did it.''

Wansink said that understanding the range of heroic qualities can be useful to people who recruit and train soldiers, firefighters and police. A quietly respectful student might be able to distinguish herself as much as the extroverted high school quarterback.

Wansink also said the study underscores the effectiveness of team building in hazardous jobs, be it partnering police officers, having firefighters live together or organizing troops into units.

``A hand grenade falls on the floor and leads you to do something other than if you didn't know who these guys were and didn't have a commitment to them,'' he said.

That sort of loyalty effect has been noted before, famously by the late author Stephen E. Ambrose, who even named one of his books about World War II combat troops ``Band of Brothers.'' Writing in ``Citizen Soldiers'' of the men who liberated Europe, he noted: ``What held them together was not country and flag, but unit cohesion.''

``I did it because it was expected of me,'' said 88-year-old Marcel Leschot, of Indianapolis, Ill, a Bronze Star recipient. ``You never thought of your own preservation.''

11/11/07 10:44 © Copyright The Associated Press. All rights reserved. The information contained In this news report may not be published, broadcast or otherwise distributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press.