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rule #1: be kind
How much of this is influenced by people just paying more attention to those around them when they see someone dressed as Batman?
Like, personally, when I'm on public transit I go into full disassociation mode. I wouldn't even notice a pregnant woman because I'm trying my best to ignore everyone. But someone dressed as Batman would snap me out of that. Its hard to ignore someone dressed as Batman, and once you focus on him, you start focusing on other people as well.
Passengers were significantly more likely to offer their seat when Batman was present (67.21% vs. 37.66%, OR = 3.393, p < 0.001). Notably, 44% of those who offered their seat in the experimental condition reported not seeing Batman. These findings suggest that unexpected events can promote prosociality, even without conscious awareness, with implications for encouraging kindness in public settings.
My hypothesis on that is people responding to others' body language to get the same snap-out-of-dissociation effect. The people closest to Batman would see him and then look around at others more to gauge their responses. Others further away wouldn't see Batman, but would notice the more-attentive-than-usual other passengers and be similarly more attentive to try to find out what's going on. They then would notice seemingly unrelated things, like the pregnant woman, and respond more than usual. The paper also says Batman entered from a different door, so a ripple effect of attentiveness could explain this effect without needing responders to directly see Batman.
Friendly correction (passing it along because I got the same correction), it's dissociation
Always remember
Batman is watching
ಠ_ಠ
Batman, God, Jesus, Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, the ghosts of my dead relatives, etc. I wish all these people would stop watching me, I'm not that interesting. It makes...certain activities...very uncomfortable. Get a different hobby or something.
Significantly more likely means its effectiveness is highest on those that wouldn't normally give up their seat, doesn't it? There are some unfortunate conclusions you could jump to from there. They say that 44% of people that gave up their seats reported not seeing batman so those conclusions probably aren't great. They seem to be concluding that that unexpected events can promotes prosociality. I wonder if that is mostly people snapping out of whatever they were doing (like staring at their phone) to actually assess the situation
Was is the Batman person who would give up their seat? Was Batman sitting or standing when the pregnant women got on?