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The Batman Effect: A Study in Human Behavior
There was a field study done in Milan that's worth sitting with for a minute. Researchers ran an experiment on the subway. First, they had a woman board with a fake baby bump, not really pregnant, but she looked pregnant. About 37% of the time, someone would give up their seat for her.
Then they had that same pregnant looking woman board the subway at the same time as a person dressed as Batman. Straight faced, serious, the real deal. And get this: the percentage of people who stood up and offered her their seat jumped to 67.2%. Not 67, 67.2%. That's not a small bump. That's doubling your good people in the room, just because Batman happened to be standing there.
It's called the Batman effect, and it's a real thing. It's from the BBC, dated August 18, 2020, and it keeps showing up in other research. Thinking of yourself as a separate entity, an alter ego, can reduce anxiety while kicking up some major benefits for confidence.
And it's broader than just this one study. They've done it with children too, school aged kids given an age appropriate task, like organizing a messy desk in a couple of minutes, the way you used to have to do with the lift top desks back in third grade. First they measured how well the kids did it. Then they told the kids to pretend they were their favorite superhero, pretend you're Batman, and do the same task. The kids did it faster, stronger, better. Significantly higher success rate. Just from imagining themselves as somebody else.
Three Ways It Shows Up
- Alter ego adoption. You pretend you're somebody you either wish you were or somebody you really admire, and while you're pretending, you perform differently.
- A psychological mechanism. The presence of a superhero changes people's engagement in the room. They become more aware, more present, more attentive to what's going on around them.
- Increased prosocial behavior. People are just better. The formal finding is that people are more likely to help others when they perceive there's a superhero influence of some sort at the time.
The Junker Car and the Bystander Problem
There's a related experiment, done maybe 40 years ago, believed to be in New York. Researchers parked a junker car on the street, dented, one window busted out. They sent actors by to kick the door, elbow the passenger window, about ten seconds apart. Before long, everybody was getting in on the act. Businessmen in suits hitting the car with their briefcases. Old ladies swinging their umbrellas at it. For no reason other than the fact that everybody else was doing it.
This connects to something worth knowing: the more people in a room when something happens, someone trips, falls, has a heart attack, the less likely any one person is to help. Sounds backwards, but it's true. People assume somebody else is more qualified, more sure of what's going on, and they just step over you or walk around you. All it takes is one person saying, "Hey, you, call 911. Hey, you, help me get him over," and suddenly everybody starts moving.
So the real question becomes: are you going to let the world around you nudge you and imprint on you, whether you're aware of it or not? Because that culture is definitely swaying you one way or another, whether you're paying attention to it or not.
Why This Shouldn't Surprise Christians
As Christians, none of this should surprise us. Our behavior changes when we perceive there's somebody in the room with authority over us, or somebody who expects more of us. Think about what you do when you see a cop pull up behind you, hands go straight to the 10 and 2, and you're doing exactly the speed limit. Or standing in front of a judge for a traffic ticket, you make sure there's no spot on your shirt, it's "yes, sir," "yes, your honor," minding your p's and q's. People know good behavior from bad behavior, and they play to the top of what they know they could do when there's accountability around them.
The same principle shows up with pastors. People get careful about how they word things when a pastor's in the room, which can make it hard to be a pastor and still be a real guy. Interestingly, it cuts the other way too these days. For a lot of people, finding out you're a pastor, or just finding out you're a Christian, makes the eye rolling come harder and the criticism come easier. Get into a fight on Facebook, and the moment people find out you're a pastor, suddenly you have no credibility to them at all.
Gramster Rant: The "Literally" Problem
Here's a confession that came out of nowhere and deserves its own spotlight: "I can be excitable. And I can get worked up. And one of the things I used to always do, and I've done it a lot less since she got that degree, and that is, 'That is literally the greatest movie I've ever seen. That is literally the best pass I've ever seen a quarterback throw. That is literally the greatest goal.'"
The intent was never to lie. The whole point was just to say something was a really special moment. But the word choice was wrong, and it took a daughter with a psychology degree to call it out directly: "Dad, you're using the word literally way out of context. You need to stop it for credibility reasons."
And she was right. That's the uncomfortable part, the moment you realize the person calling you out has a point. It doesn't stop at "literally" either. It's the same instinct that shows up saying things like, "This is the best 4 minutes of cinematography you'll ever see in your whole life." Are you sure about that? There's lots of other stuff out there.
The takeaway: words matter, exaggeration erodes trust, and credibility is something you build sentence by sentence, not something you can just claim. If you want people to actually believe you when something really is the greatest, the best, the most literal truth you've ever spoken, you can't spend all your credibility on hyperbole about a football throw. Watch your words. Guard your credibility. Literally.
Salvaged by God Deep Dive: Community, Refinement, and the Spirit of Truth
If people modify their behavior around a fake influence like a guy in a Batman costume, and they know it's fake, imagine what it means that the presence Christians carry is real. The Bible teaches that belief in Christ begins a genuine work inside a person, changing them from the inside out. Jesus enables you to live the way He calls you to live. So it's not surprising that a costumed stranger changes behavior on a train. What's remarkable is what happens when people actually know the Lord Jesus Christ, and know that it's not just real, but permanent. It lasts, because God tells us, "Neither will I leave you or forsake you." The changes He makes in you become part of you. You don't just revert back to your old behavior.
Even famous atheist Richard Dawkins has admitted something along these lines, calling himself a "cultural Christian." He denies Christianity outright but likes its effects on culture, said he'd rather live in a Christian culture than an Islamic one. He sees the difference. Your perception of who is watching, who is seeing, who is knowing, makes a huge difference in how you act and how you live. Even an atheist will acknowledge that belief in God changes behavior. And then who you hang out with also makes a difference.
1 Corinthians 15:33
"Do not be deceived. Bad company corrupts good morals."
That's a really good scripture because, honestly, who you hang around with makes the difference. Who you interact with makes a difference. That's not to say Christians should be mean to people who aren't believers. Plenty of men run prison ministries, going in to witness to and minister to prisoners. But when those prisoners get out, don't hang out with the same people. Anybody who's dealt with addiction, or worked with people who have, knows changing your friend group is one of the first things you're told to do, because sticking with the old crowd is a lot of times what leads straight back to relapse.
Proverbs 13:20
"One who walks with wise people will be wise, but a companion of fools will suffer harm."
It'll suffer harm. That's pretty deep. A cop steps onto a subway, or Batman steps onto a subway, or a judge in robes steps onto a subway, people act differently. The Bible's been saying this throughout human history. The interesting thing is they've even extended this into the realm of the fake. We all know it's fake, we know there's no real Batman, but it still has an impact. Culture around you, whether you're super aware of it or not, is nudging you, imprinting on you, and maybe swaying you one way or another. So the real question becomes, are you going to let the world around you do that?
We were made to live in community with one another, and we start taking on the behaviors of the people we surround ourselves with. That's why a young boy at a very early age starts talking, walking, even standing the way his dad stands. That's who he's hanging out with, who he's admiring right now. Same is true with our Lord Jesus Christ. If you are in His Word, studying it, and you really do love Him, that's where the changed life begins. He is doing the work, obviously, but you start looking like Him, acting the way He would have you act, because you know Him now so much better, and you know His will.
Zechariah 13:9
"And I will bring the third part through the fire, refine them as silver is refined, and test them as gold is tested, and they will call on my name, and I will answer them. I will say they are my people, and they will say the Lord is my God."
See how that works? He refines people by bringing them through the fire. Even a subway ride you take every day can be boring, monotonous, head in your phone, blocking everything out. All of a sudden, though, Batman steps on, and you pay more attention, probably more so than if you were just walking down the street, because now he's in this compartment with you and nobody's getting out. The part that lands hardest: "they will call on my name, and I will answer them... I will say they are my people." And then all of us say, the Lord is my God, as He shapes us and molds us and refines us. Not "what did I get out of the deal, and how awesome am I, and look at my spiritual gifts." Just, the Lord is my God, because we've been broken in our sins and He's rescued us, been our substitute for the wrath we deserved. Much different gospel than what America is drowning in right now.
We're sheep, genuinely wired to be impressionable. Like a lamb chasing after you as a kid, playing with it and it starts chasing you a little, fake jump over a log and the lamb jumps too, mimicking a motion that made no logical sense on its own, because there wasn't even a log there. It's kind of the way we're wired, to learn from other people, and learn from people we trust and people who are good.
John 14:14-17
"If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it. If you love me, you will keep my commandments. I will ask the Father and he will give you another helper so that he may be with you forever. The helper is the spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive because it does not see him or know him. But you know him because he remains with you and will be in you."
That "ask anything in my name" line is not name it and claim it. It's immediately followed by "if you love me, you will keep my commandments." In other words, if you want Jesus to do what you ask, you'll ask coming out of an abundance of the Spirit in you, so you'll ask appropriately. James says you ask and do not receive because you ask amiss, wanting to spend it on your own pleasures. Wanting the kingdom advanced, wanting the bride of Christ strengthened, wanting His kingdom made great, that's the posture to hold. He's a warrior king on a white horse in Revelation 19, worth reading in full starting at verse 11. That's the Jesus we serve, and that's who we ask anything in the name of, as a warrior king for His kingdom, for the bride of Christ. Not so that all our own needs get met, though He does meet our needs, and that's still worth praying for.
Verse 14 is the key. "I will ask the Father, and he will give you another helper." He's going to send the Holy Spirit. When we're given the Spirit, we have the ability to do the things God wants us to do, those good and right and pure things, and the things we ask for line up with God's will. It would be like walking up to Batman and saying, "Hey Batman, do a magic trick for me." That's not who he is, that's not what he does, and he'll probably tell you no. There are a lot of parallels here between this Milan experiment and the relationship we have with Jesus Christ. But remember, even though Batman eventually gets off the subway, off the train, the Holy Spirit doesn't. God says the Holy Spirit's going to be with you forever. This isn't a momentary thing.
The helper is called "the spirit of truth," and one of His defining functions is that He always points to Christ. It's always about Jesus as our warrior king who took our wrath upon Himself. And it says the world can't receive Him. That's why we have carnal Christians, and many of them are falsely converted, who just want to try to use and abuse the Spirit to give themselves some significance. The Spirit is not commanded by human beings, nor does the Spirit show up in speaking gibberish. That's not the spirit of truth according to the Bible in context. It's not opinion, it's simply what the text says. But you know Him because He remains in you and will be in you, testifying to the truth that your name is written in the Lamb's Book of Life, because of the great warrior king who has written on His thigh, King of kings and Lord of lords.
What the World Can't See
When we board a train, we act as though we are boarding and the Lord is with us, and we still act accordingly. But the world can't see that. The world doesn't know Batman's on the train. They don't think it's real, they don't see it, therefore they're not going to act according to it. This is probably part of why people love superhero stories so much, all the movies, comic books, and TV shows built around these famous characters. We are created in God's image, made by Him, and eternity is written on our hearts. So there's this thing in us that craves or desires a superhero like experience.
Superheroes are not quite human. They're like us in shape and in view, but they have superpowers, abilities beyond what we ourselves can do. Often they're from somewhere else, outside our culture, outside our atmosphere, and they come in to save us. They come to the rescue of people who cannot save themselves. That's what's always going on in these stories. There's an evil in the city the people themselves aren't going to be able to conquer, and in comes the human looking but more than human hero to save the day. That's really what Jesus Christ was, God Himself, who comes in the flesh as a human, so He can identify with us, empathize with us. We have not been tempted by anything that Jesus was not tempted with.
Final Thoughts
The Batman effect, or maybe better, the savior effect. It's real, and it happens to everybody. There is no greater superhero than the Lord Jesus Christ. No one can save you more than Jesus saves you.
Sharing the fact that God is with us, with the people in your sphere, can change things. It can change things. Even if they know that you're a Christian and know what you believe, walking into a room might make them think about things they wouldn't have thought about before, or act differently than they normally would. And you've left an impression they have to deal with. You can't just pretend that didn't happen. It's just like when Batman gets on the bus, you have a really hard time pretending there's nothing going on. In fact, the study showed people became very aware of their surroundings once Batman stepped in.
So that's what's needed. The savior effect. All the more encouragement to share the gospel with as many people as possible.