The Heroic Imagination Project (HIP)[1] is a non-profit research and education organization dedicated to promoting heroism in everyday life.[2]
HIP operates on the principle that heroism is accessible to all and that each of us has the extraordinary potential to act with courage, integrity, and compassion. The organization focuses on preparing its students to take effective action in challenging situations, whether that requires proactive, everyday heroic action or rare and reactive heroic action.
HIP conducts training events and workshops that tackle bystander behavior, bias, and challenge navigation in businesses, NGOs, and schools across the globe. In the years following the COVID-19 pandemic, the organization moved much of its activity online, providing the HIP Hero Club curriculum to secondary schools across the world, training over 200 students in the asynchronous, virtual Level One Hero Training Course, and holding monthly HIP World Chats with the international heroism education community. In 2022 the organization resumed in-person events, introducing HIP Summits as a new way for heroes in training to connect.
HIP also conducts research and curates knowledge about heroism and related pro-social traits and behaviors. Noteworthy publications related to heroism by the HIP Board of Directors have been written in the last decade such as:
- Riches, Brian R.; Langdon, Matt; and Kohen, Ari (2020) "Ethical Concerns of Heroism Training," Heroism Science: Vol. 5: Iss. 2, Article 1.DOI: 10.26736/hs.2020.02.01
- Kohen, A., Riches, B., & Sólo, A. (2024). I Am Not a Hero: How Heroic Action Divorces the Hero from the Political Community. Journal of Humanistic Psychology, 0(0). https://doi.org/10.1177/00221678241242506
- Kohen, Ari. "Tony Stark and the Classical Heroism of the Marvel Cinematic Universe." The Politics of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, edited by Nicholas Carnes and Lilly J. Goren, University Press of Kansas, 2023, pp. 36–51. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv36tpjtk.7. Accessed 30 Sept. 2024.
- Zimbardo, P.G., Kohen, A. (2023). Heroic Imagination Project (HIP). In: Encyclopedia of Heroism Studies. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-17125-3_275-1
- Riches, Brian R. (2023) Hero Training Programs. In: Encyclopedia of Heroism Studies. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-17125-3_275-1
- Riches, Brian R. (2023) Measuring Heroism. In: Encyclopedia of Heroism Studies. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-17125-3_275-1
- Langdon, M. (2021). The Hero Handbook. Magination Press.
- ^ "Heroic Imagination Project". Retrieved October 18, 2024.
- ^ Tugend, Alina (January 10, 2014). "In Life and Business, Learning to Be Ethical". The New York Times. Retrieved January 21, 2014.