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Comment on Unexpected events and prosocial behavior: the Batman effect (2025)

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I like that they didn't try to make it some subliminal superhero tie-in and instead proposed the more plausible mechanism of increasing attention to surroundings in the presence of something unusual.

At the same time, the experiment doesn't corroborate this take at all. If it were a mix of different "unexpected events", then you might have an argument there. As the experiment is, I'd say, it would have been better to leave that speculation out of the synthesis.

I haven't read the paper but did they propose reduction in social anxiety/awkwardness associated with putting yourself as the center of attention when someone else is being much more visible and awkward in the same space?

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