Study says superhero movies are good for social behavior

Superheroes are also saving the real world.

A study published in The Journal of Psychology in August found that superhero movies can promote prosocial behavior — actions that benefit other people or society as a whole.

The researchers wanted to see how movies that are usually filled with violence affect viewers in terms of empathy and moral reasoning.

The study involved two experiments, each with 200 Brazilian participants, who were assigned to either an experimental group or a control group. Those in the experimental group watched a 3-minute, 47-second clip from 2016’s “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice,” in which Ben Affleck’s Batman rescues a woman captured by armed villains.

Meanwhile, the control group watched a video of colorful shapes forming different patterns.

All participants then had to complete a prosocial behavior task, which involved them handing out chocolate bars to future participants. Their measure of prosocial behavior was determined based on their chocolate number.

In addition, participants’ empathy levels were measured after watching the videos. The scale has three types of empathy: affective empathy (sharing someone else’s feelings), cognitive empathy (understanding someone else’s feelings), and associative empathy (relating to someone else based on their feelings).

The second experiment involved moral justification, where participants had to decide whether they thought Batman was justified in being violent in the film.

The results revealed that participants who saw the scene in “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice” had higher levels of empathy. They had the highest associated empathy, meaning they related to Batman becoming violent to save someone.

However, participants who watched the clip from the movie did not give out significantly more chocolate than participants who watched the colorful shapes video.

However, the superhero group scored higher on the empathy scale overall.

Meanwhile, the second study found that moral reasoning played a large role in tests of prosocial behavior. Participants in the superhero field found Batman’s actions moral and justified, and thus were more likely to do things to help other people.

The study noted some drawbacks to the results, such as potential distractions that may have occurred when participants were watching the videos.

It was also noted that chocolate distribution was the only prosocial behavior task used in the study, and this task is not the deciding factor in determining prosocial actions in the real world.

Last year, a separate study from the International Journal of Research found that superhero movies have various negative effects on viewers, including increased aggression, decreased attention span, decreased critical thinking skills, increased anxiety and stress, reduced physical activity, sexism, racism and more.

However, this latest study from The Journal of Psychology, which was authored by Isabella Leandra Silva Santos and Carlos Eduardo Pimentel, shows that there are a lot more positives to watching superhero movies than most people probably realize.

And aside from rare exceptions like “Joker 2,” most superhero movies like “Deadpool and Wolverine” are still enjoying theatrical success after all these years.