Date: Dec 17, 2025 Reference: Pagnini F, et al. Unexpected events and prosocial behavior: the Batman effect. npj Mental Health Research. November 2025 Guest Skeptic: Dr. Dennis Ren is a pediatric emergency medicine physician at Children’s National in Washington, DC. You may also know him as the host of SGEM Peds. Case: It’s been a dark, cold day in Gotham City. You’re finally on the metro heading home after a long shift. The train is packed, and you’re standing, crammed uncomfortably among all the other citizens eager to get home. Outside, you see the holiday lights and decorations, trying valiantly to shine through the flurries of snow. At the next stop, you see a visibly pregnant passenger board the crowded train car. She shuffles in and stands, holding the rail. No one around her moves. No one gets up to offer their seat. Hardly anyone even notices. You pull your coat a bit tighter around you and wonder: What’s it going to take to nudge people to be a little more helpful? Background: Prosocial behaviour is something we rely on every shift but hardly ever discuss explicitly. Psychologists typically define it as voluntary actions aimed at helping others. Examples include holding a door open, donating money, giving up your seat, or stepping in to assist a stranger. It’s an umbrella term that covers everything from simple everyday kindness to extraordinary acts of altruism. The world just saw an extraordinary example of prosocial behaviour in the Bondi Beach attack ‘hero’, Ahmed Al Ahmed. Motivations vary: empathy and concern for others, a desire to follow social norms, expectations of reciprocity, and even a wish to avoid guilt all influence prosocial behaviour. Prosocial behaviour has traditionally been studied in several primary ways. In the lab, researchers use economic games (such as dictator, ultimatum, and public goods games), staged helping tasks (such as picking up dropped pens or assisting with a “broken” computer), or vignette-based scenarios (“Would you stop to help?”). In real-world settings, classic bystander studies explore whether people intervene when someone seems in need and what situational factors (crowding, diffusion of responsibility, perceived danger) influence their decision to act or remain passive. Throughout all approaches, a key theme is that context plays a crucial role: the same individual may assist in one situation but ignore someone in another. Over the past decade, there has been increasing interest in how subtle environmental cues influence prosocial behaviour. Mindfulness research indicates that when people focus on the present moment, they may be more inclined to notice others’ needs and respond accordingly, although the evidence remains modest and not definitive. Another area of study examines "social primes." For example, images of superheroes can temporarily boost helping intentions and small acts of assistance. A related body of research on the “pique technique” demonstrates that unusual, unexpected events or requests can disrupt automatic “no” responses and increase compliance or helping, likely by pulling people out of autopilot. The “Batman effect” study we explore today extends these ideas into real-world scenarios. Could an unexpected disruption, such as a person dressed as Batman, increase a specific prosocial behaviour? For an emergency physician accustomed to crowded waiting rooms and chaotic departments, it’s an intriguing yet potentially significant question: can small, harmless environmental “shocks” encourage people to do the right thing a little more often without anyone ever having to take a mandatory module on ethics? Clinical Question: Among passengers on a crowded metropolitan subway, does the presence of an unexpected event (a person dressed as Batman) increase the likelihood that someone offers their seat to a pregnant-appearing woman, compared with no Batman present? Reference: Pagnini F, et al. Unexpected events and prosocial behavior: the Batman effect. npj M
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