**Moral Courage** Intervening in a fight, speaking out for foreigners in a group of hostile nationalists, or reporting an embezzlement to a supervisor... These behaviors are without doubt courageous. Still, there are some persons who intervene against violations of moral principles despite the risk of substantial own costs. What drives these people to actively protect principles and values by risking their health, reputation, or job whereas others stand and watch? We argue that such people deserve to be named morally exceptional. Based on the idea that several psychological process steps need to be passed in order to act morally courageously, only those people with extraordinary personality constellations might be able to overcome the involved barriers. The psychological steps involve detecting and interpreting the behavior of another person or group as morally wrong, to feel emotionally troubled, and focus on the positive instead of the negative consequences of an intervention. By contrast, a person might remain inactive because s/he is distracted, indifferent, fearful, or keen to primarily protect his/her own interests. The present research aims at testing how a set of person characteristics determine morally courageous behavior. This involves, for example, how much a person perceives moral principles as binding for him-/herself and others, the tendendy to act out perceived emotions reactions rather than controlling them, or how much this person experiences him-/herself as capable to act even in situations that are unknown and difficult to manage. In order to distinguish the morally courageous from the others, we conduct two empirical studies. In Study 1, local and regional 'Moral Courage Awards' in Germany are searched for via internet and media. In addition, self- and peer-nominations of persons who have acted to stop or redress a moral violation will be recruited. Participants will be asked about characteristics of the situation in which they intervened. We will compare the group of morally courageous with a group that has not engaged in such behaviors with regard to measures of personality dispositions. In Study 2, participants will be invited for a laboratory study, ostensibly on Learning and Emotion. During this study, an embezzlement takes place. In more detail, all participants will witness how two experimenters plan and implement to keep money that rightfully belongs the department they are affiliated to. Via observer ratings, we distinguish those who intervene to stop the embezzlement from those who remain inactive. We assess immediate reactions to the embezzlement, such as self-reported interpretations of the situation, self- and other-rated emotional reactions, and psychophysiological measures. Moreover, measures of personality dispositions are assessed on a separate measurement occasion. We test predictors of intervention.