The Heroization of Healthcare Workers Blinds the Public to Their Suffering and Encourages Their Exploitation

From the earliest days of the COVID-19 pandemic, healthcare workers all over the world have been lauded as “heroes”. Despite intentions to show appreciation for healthcare workers, we offer evidence that the “hero” label can ironically and insidiously blind the public to their suffering and encourage their exploitation. The heroization of healthcare workers predicts beliefs that they: (1) must enjoy their jobs despite increasingly poor treatment, (2) can endure negative work-related health outcomes, and (3) would willingly volunteer for more work (without any additional pay) and take additional pay cuts. Heroizing healthcare workers also increased public support for new exploitative policies. These effects were specific to heroizing, and not just the result of more general positive attitudes toward healthcare workers. We discuss the implications of these effects for contemporary forms of exploitation and for how we can work to mitigate the suffering and unfair treatment of healthcare workers in difficult times.