I love experiments that involve superheroes. This one involved observing the passengers on a Milan subway in two different scenarios. The first scenario did not include a superhero. Instead, it involved an apparently pregnant woman. She boarded subway train with an observer who assessed the passengers’ willingness to offer their seat to the pregnant woman or some other person who seemed “in need.” Slightly more than one third of the passengers (37.66%) offered their seats to another person in the presence of the pregnant woman.

In the second scenario, a person dressed as Batman boarded the car and an observer assessed passengers’ willingness to offer their seat to another person. In Batman’s presence, 67.21% of the passengers (2 in 3) offered their seats to another person. Ironically, 44% of those who offered their seats in the presence of Batman reported that they did not see Batman board the train.

Perhaps Batman’s presence, even if not consciously recognized, “enhanced the relevance of cultural values, gender roles, and norms of chivalrous help, consistent with research on the ‘priming’ effect associated with superheroes.” In other words, the presence of a superhero stimulated the value of sharing kindness. (Sadly, the presence of a pregnant woman did not seem to stimulate the same value of kindness. I’m not sure what this says about our cultural values.) 

As a family, we want to promote kindness between family members as well as between family members and those outside our family in the community. Sometimes this may require explicit teaching and modeling of kindness. And we need to model this kindness even if a “superhero” is not present. We need to model kindness in the presence of anyone and everyone—to the pregnant woman, the cashier, the stranger entering the store with us, the elderly man…the list goes on. In fact, we need to model kindness to everyone we meet and teach our children to do the same. If you need dress up like Batman to make it happen…well, it won’t hurt. But why buy the costume? Just share acts of kindness with others and watch it get paid forward…after all, you are your child’s superhero.