Courage for Peace

Is it courageous to pursue compromise instead of standing up for one’s beliefs? Accolade courage (Pury & Starkey, Is courage an accolade or a process? A fundamental question for courage research. In C.L.S. Pury & S.J. Lopez (Eds.), The psychology of courage: Modern research on an ancient virtue (pp. 67–87). American Psychological Association, 2010) predicts that individual differences matter for determining the courageousness of particular actions. This chapter views character strengths as one type of individual difference that may affect the accolade courage of compromise. After completing the VIA Inventory of Strengths, 1177 participants described a time they compromised with and a time they stood up to someone they disagreed with. The communal strengths of Leadership and Teamwork, as well as Hope and Perseverance, predicted higher courage ratings for compromise but not for standing up. By contrast, the oppositional strength of Bravery as well as Judgment and Perspective, predicted higher courage ratings for standing up but not for compromise. Other strengths differentially predicted the components of courageous action (riskiness, value of the goal, and outcome). These results broadly support a view of accolade courage as a reflection of the values of the observer.