Folks, we have some revolutionary sociological research to share with you today.
After making a guy dressed as Batman stand around in a subway car, a team of researchers found that the behavior of people around him suddenly improved the moment he showed up. No longer was everyone completely self-involved; with the presence of a superhero, commuters started helping each other more than they would’ve without him around.
Behold: the “Batman effect.”
That’s not altruism, that’s fear.
Would need to see tests done. Try other threat stimuli, other Batman colour palettes. A pink one, for example.
Maybe we can have a violent clown threaten to blow up another train
Just a dude in full clown outfit, sitting silently in the middle of the train with a massive grin on his face, holding a big clearly marked stick of ‘Dynamite’ and a huge matchstick.
I can’t find it now, but there was an experiment where people were given a skill game to try and let alone in a (recorded) room, then self reported their score.
When the experimenter casually mentioned that this rocking chair over here was his late grandmother’s, he was just keeping it there until he could move it to his home, because he felt her presence in it, nobody lied about their score.
So, Batman and granny ghosts.
Neat, cheaters believe in ghosts
According to the article it’s not really about the character itself but rather introducing an unusual, offbeat element seems to make groups of people more empathetic.
44% of people who ceded their place to the pregnant woman in the study reported not even noticing the Batman. So this is some kind of subconscious effect on the crowd I guess.
I figured it’d be something along those lines, I was just being cute