A strange phenomenon: people become kinder in Batman’s presence

New research shows that the presence of Batman, or at least someone wearing his costume, increases the likelihood of altruistic behavior in public; A topic that, contrary to its humorous appearance, raises a serious discussion about the factors that strengthen social behaviors. Psychologists from the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart in Italy designed a series of experiments in the Milan subway to investigate what factors make passengers give up their seats to a pregnant person.

The key point of these experiments was the occasional presence of a person in a Batman costume to determine whether this superhero affects the behavior of passengers or not.

The results of the tests were impressive. In 138 field performances, when Batman was in the car, passengers gave up their seats 67.21 percent of the time to the pregnant passenger, who was actually a member of the test team. But in the absence of Batman, this rate decreased significantly and only 37.66% of passengers gave up their seats.

To prevent the experiment from being leaked, the pregnant person and the person dressed as Batman entered the train through different doors, kept a certain distance and did not have any obvious interaction.

But why did the presence of Batman change the behavior of passengers? Evidence shows that the reason was neither fear of judgment nor the presence of a superhero. According to the researchers’ report, most of the people who gave up their seats stated that the reason for this action was to help the pregnant person and comply with social norms and politeness. The interesting thing is that no one directly mentioned the role of Batman in their decision; Even about 43.75% of the participants said that they did not notice his presence at all.

Researchers also propose another hypothesis; The presence of an unexpected element, such as a person dressed as Batman, can increase people’s level of awareness of the environment. As a result, a passenger who might normally be engrossed in a podcast or cell phone suddenly becomes more attentive and notices the needs of the pregnant passenger.

However, the research team emphasizes that increased environmental awareness is not the only possible explanation.

Francesco Pagnini, a psychologist at UniCatt, explains:

It is also possible that the presence of a superhero unconsciously activates cultural values ​​and norms of chivalrous help in the mind; This topic is consistent with previous researches about the priming effect related to superhero characters. In other words, Batman can play the role of a kind of social stimulus.

To investigate this phenomenon more closely, researchers suggest conducting similar experiments with other characters. Is the same effect also seen with the presence of a negative figure like Darth Vader? Or do the moral characteristics of the person present play a key role in stimulating altruistic behaviors?