Researchers in Milan found that subway commuters are kinder when Batman is present. Yes, that Batman. I understand that sentence reads like a hallucination. I assure you, you did not just have a severe mental episode.
According to a study published in npj Mental Health Research, the sudden appearance of something weird, like, say, a silent guy in full Dark Knight regalia, snaps people out of their commuter stupors and makes them more likely to help others.
The research team, led by clinical psychology professor Francesco Pagnini of Università Cattolica, ran a simple test. First, they had a woman who appeared pregnant enter a subway car and counted how many people offered her a seat. Then they repeated the scenario, but this time Batman slipped into the train from another door.
A Random Dude in a Batman Costume Made Subway Riders Nicer
Without Batman, only about 38 percent of passengers stood up for the pregnant woman. With Batman, that number leapt to roughly 67 percent. More than two-thirds of riders suddenly remembered they were human beings capable of empathizing with others.
And all it took was the presence of a semi-fascist but admittedly still quite cool lunatic dressed like a bat whose concept of justice begins and ends at beating the s—t out of people with severe mental health issues.
Women did most of the seat-giving in both conditions, but the mere presence of the caped crusader still boosted helpfulness across the board.
Nearly half of the people who acted kindly in the Batman condition later claimed they never even noticed him, which seems hard to believe, but sure. That means Batman didn’t have to be consciously perceived to work his magic; the simple interruption of routine, the disruption of drudgery, was enough to snap people out of their emotional and psychological autopilot mode and start engaging with people on a human level.
Pagnini says the results echo earlier findings about mindfulness, that being present tends to make us nicer. This new study is, in a sense, also about presence — the presence of Batman and his psychological effects.
But it’s not really about Batman. It’s about novelty, unpredictability, and maybe possibly a little bit about how being in the presence of an iconic fictional figure that we associate with justice and do-goodery primes us toward a kinder, more humane treatment of others.
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