The Courage Quotient: How Science Can Make You Braver [Hardcover]

Robert Biswas-Diener (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 10, 2012

The keys to understanding and developing courage

This groundbreaking book reveals that courage is more about managing fear than not feeling it, and that courage can be learned. The author explains that most courageous people are unaware of their own bravery, and all of us have some form of courage in our lives now, to start with. The book is filled with illustrative examples, studies, and interviews from Greenland to Kenya, and defines the types of individuals who demonstrate general, personal, and civil courage. The author includes clear guidelines and suggestions for increasing our ability to be courageous.

• Includes guidelines that show how anyone can ramp-up their courage quotient and develop the qualities that strengthen personal courage
• Contains a wealth of examples and anecdotes of real-world courage from a variety of cultures
• A prolific writer, the author has a popular blog Psychology Today

The author extols the virtues of personal courage and shows how to overcome fear and stand up for what is right.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

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Two courage lists from Robert Biswas-Diener, author of The Courage Quotient

Robert Biswas-Diener

Who has courage? A list of groups who have courage:

1. Women
   Although bravery is, stereotypically, a masculine trait, women also show a wide variety of courage. Women have high rates of live organ donation, overseas volunteerism, and challenging advocacy roles.
2. Executives
   In one study executives had lower rates of fear and a higher willingness to act than did police officers, fire fighters and other emergency personnel.
3. People living near the Equator
   In an international survey people living near the Equator in countries such as Nigeria and Brazil had higher average rates of bravery than did their counterparts in Europe and North America.
4. Whistle blowers
   It is risky to speak out against an injustice, especially when there might be negative personal consequences. One study reveals that people who will not participate in immorality are higher on empathy, higher on moral reasoning, and able to evaluate whether actions make sense in a given context.
5. Everyone
   Although people normally think about dramatic acts of heroism when thinking about courage each of us has personal history of overcoming fear and anxiety. If you have ever gotten married, taken a new job, moved to a new city or had a child you have experienced an act of bravery.

Five ways to increase your own courage quotient:

1. Appreciation
   When most people begin the process of self-improvement-whether that is trying to become happier or more courageous-they think about what they could do differently. This rush for "better" can sometimes cause folks to overlook the current successes in their lives. I recommend taking stock of the times you have already acted bravely: speaking p on the behalf of someone else, moving to a new job, getting married or having children, or overcoming a personal fear such as flying.
2. Manage your fear.
   This is, seemingly, the most straightforward piece of advice related to courage. If fear holds you back then managing that fear opens up the potential for moving forward. Fear comes in different types and each is associated with a different solution. Fear of failure, for example, can be counterbalanced by taking stock of progress. The antidote to fear of rejection is to shift the focus from the self toward the situation. Breathing and relaxation techniques can also be effective.
3. Get angry.
   Many people avoid the emotion of anger because they feel it is destructive, and it certainly can be. Anger is also an emotion that helps us protect ourselves or those we care about when our rights are being threatened. One study shows that people in an angry mood were more optimistic about the outcomes of a risk. In essence, they were more courageous. Perhaps you have seen athletes similarly "psych themselves up" for a competition by getting angry.
4. Get a lucky charm.
   People have a natural tendency to think magically; to believe in superstitions or luck or other phenomena that are not proven. You can leverage this natural tendency to your advantage where courage is concerned by adopting a personally meaningful lucky charm. One stuck showed that people who had a lucky charm outperformed others on memory and golf tasks! Interviews with courageous people yield the truth that many employ such a charm to boost their confidence in anxious situations.
5. Embrace failure.
   Most people do not like failure because it stings, psychologically speaking. People naturally avoid failure and folks with a perfectionist leaning find it especially abhorrent. Mistakes and failure can be beneficial in that they make us more mindful, help us learn, offer us a chance to reflect, and make us appear more authentic to others. Instead of letting a fear of mistakes hold you back try embracing them. Small mistakes and low stakes failure are a part of life.

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From the Inside Flap

Scientific studies confirm what most of us have suspected all along: that those who are bold enough to go after what they want enjoy greater success and happiness. Most of us think of courage as something that "you're either born with or you're not." But as Dr. Robert Biswas-Diener demonstrates in this illuminating and practical new book, most of us are more courageous than we realize—and bravery can be learned.

Biswas-Diener begins with the premise that courage is more about managing fear than not feeling it. As he shows, all of us display some form of bravery in our daily lives (in fact, studies reveal that women exhibit courage in higher numbers than men). He then goes on to describe the different types of people who demonstrate bravery, from general and individual courage to civil courage. Drawing on original research and his interviews with individuals from across the globe, Biswas-Diener helps readers raise their own "courage quotient," offering proven strategies to manage fear and boost the willingness to act.

This fascinating book shows how courage is viewed differently in various cultures, from Japan and Norway to Africa and Israel, and provides a wealth of compelling anecdotes that inspire personal insights for readers. Throughout the book, the author introduces concepts such as "courage blindness" and "personal courage" and puts the focus on the importance of magical thinking—as well as failure—in the bravery process. Readers will discover how to increase courage in their own personal lives (overcoming private fears like standing up to a bully or speaking up in a college lecture course) as well as in the public realm (standing up for what is right in the "face of fire," speaking truth to power, and taking appropriate financial risk).

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 208 pages
• Publisher: Jossey-Bass; 1 edition (April 10, 2012)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0470917423
• ISBN-13: 978-0470917428
• Product Dimensions: 6.4 x 0.8 x 9.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (33 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #314,087 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Dr. Robert Biswas-Diener is widely known as the Indiana Jones of Positive Psychology because his research on happiness has taken him to such far flung places as Greenland, India and Kenya. He is the managing director of Positive Acorn. He sits on the editorial boards of the Journal of Happiness Studies and Journal of Positive Psychology a part-time instructor at Portland State University and. Robert is a Certified Mentor Coach (CMC) and has worked with clients on four continents. Robert is author of The Courage Quotient (2012), Practicing Positive Psychology Coaching (2010), Happiness: Unlocking the mysteries of psychological wealth (2008). He is also co-founder of the charitable mission The Strengths Project.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Well Done Treatment of Courage February 26, 2012

By Book Fanatic TOP 500 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review (What's this?)

This book has several things going for it. It is short and to the point; there are not a lot of wasted irrelevant side trips in this book. It is also oriented toward practicality. Finally it is based mostly on science with some supporting anecdotal stories that I found interesting.

Biswas-Diener breaks courage into two separate and independent processes - 1) Managing fear and 2) Willingness to act. Both can be attacked separately and as long as willingness to act exceeds fear you can be brave. This was particularly well illustrated in his example of the passengers of United flight 93 (the 9/11 flight that crashed in Pennsylvania when the passengers tried to take back the plane from the hijackers).

The book is broken into 4 parts:

Part I - A Crash Course in Courage
Part II - Increasing Courage by Controlling Fear
Part III - Increasing Courage by Boosting the Willingness to Act
Part IV - Conclusion

Each part has a few chapters and each chapter ends with a short section summarizing the chapter and telling you what you can do to implement the findings.

I found the book useful and a bit unusual in the sense that courage is not a topic common in the self-help literature. I applaud the author in not stretching his topic unnecessarily. Biswas-Diener says courage is important because it leads to a fuller lived life and that it can be learned. He supports that stand very well in this fine book.

I recommend this book to anyone because I think we can all do with a bit more courage.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Better at describing courage than inspiring it March 5, 2012

By a reader VINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review (What's this?)

This book really has quite a lot to offer. The author provides many stories, and describes many studies that gives insight about every aspect of courage, from managing fear to developing the willingness to act quickly and effectively in an emergency. He approaches courage from many different angles, and it all makes for interesting and rather light reading. There is so much to learn about what makes human beings tick, and some very good insights are provided in this book

However, for some readers, the above information may not feel like enough. The author's approach may feel a little too cool and objective; what's missing is a deeper understanding or treatment of a certain underlying, ongoing passion: the passion of Gandhi, the passion of Martin Luther King, the passion of someone who is able to grab hold of him or herself and suffer and sacrifice for a higher purpose, over and over again, perhaps for years. Passion, accountability, and conviction based on a rock solid certainty about oneself and the importance of a cause...these and other qualities come to mind.

While this book is very good at what it does, (especially chapters 7 and 8) for some readers this book may seem to talk about courage more than inspiring it...3.5 stars.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars interesting study and approach March 3, 2012

By mikemac9

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review (What's this?)

I started this book a bit skeptical since something like courage didn't seem like it could be easily studied scientifically, let alone conveyed to a lay audience. But this book does just that. If you think that reading this book will turn you into someone with nerves of steel then I think you have asked too much. But if you want to nudge yourself in the direction of increase courage then this book does lay out a plan.

Fundamentally Biswas-Diener sees courage as the result of two interacting processes, fear and willingness to act. These are two independent factors, so increasing courage can be done thru steps that decrease fear and increase the propensity to do something. With plenty of examples and references to psychological research, this relatively slender book makes for a few hours of reading that are profitably spent.