Offbeat

1736 readers

3 users here now

Post your funny, weird, strange, or quirky news stories here!

Community Rules

No editorialized titles
No satire news sites (The Beaverton, The Onion, etc...)
No politics
Submissions must be no older than 2 months (i.e. the article should be "recent" news)

Similar Communities

founded 2 years ago

MODERATORS

TheWaterGod@lemmy.ca

130

Scientists Discover That People Act Way Better When Batman Is Present (futurism.com)

submitted 2 weeks ago by IcedRaktajino@startrek.website to c/offbeat@lemmy.ca

20 comments fedilink hide all child comments

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.”

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] TotallyHuman@lemmy.ca 7 points 2 weeks ago

I find these results quite surprising, since I feel like I would be far less likely to notice someone needing my seat if there was a distracting person in a superhero costume. But maybe people audibly react, which causes more people to look up from their phones?