The Times seems to think we all have the capability to be Wesley Autrey. If you’ve been living under a rock for the past week with respect to news, Autrey is a 50-year-old construction worker and Navy vet who leaped in front of a subway train to save a man who’d fallen onto the tracks while having a seizure - both men lived as the train passed overhead. Autrey left two daughters behind on the platform when he jumped. The interesting part is that, despite what you might personally think (I know I sure as heck don’t think I could do it), apparently we all have that potential:
But is there something in Mr. Autrey that the rest of us lack? Probably not, experts say. Except for sociopaths, humans are built to feel and act out of empathy, said Stephen G. Post, a professor of bioethics at Case Western Reserve University’s medical school and co-author of “Why Good Things Happen to Good People,” scheduled to be published in May. Social support has always been important to survival, and people with strong social networks thrive more than those who are isolated.