According to a new Brazilian study, superhero movies can promote prosocial behaviour despite the onscreen violence that usually accompanies their activities
A scene from Zack Snyder's “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice” (2016) was used in the Brazilian study.
Image: Warner Bros.©
From Spider-Man to Superman to Captain Marvel, superheroes are adored by young and old alike, and their values can have a genuine impact. According to a new Brazilian study, superhero movies can promote prosocial behavior despite the onscreen violence that usually accompanies their activities.
Who hasn't dreamed of donning a cape and saving the world? If kids might love dressing up as superheroes after seeing the latest Spider-Man or Batman movie, they might also adopt the same kind of heroic behavior, research suggests.
The study, entitled "Superhero Films' Impacts on Prosocial Behavior: The Mediating Role of State-Empathy and Violence Justification," published in The Journal of Psychology, involved 200 Brazilians, who were divided into two groups: a study group and a control group.
The study group watched a 3-minute, 47-second scene from the 2016 “Batman v Superman” movie, in which Batman fights several villains to rescue a captured character. The scene illustrates both the violence typical of this kind of film and the heroic, protective aspect of their actions. In contrast, the control group watched a neutral video with no violent or prosocial content.