Batman from San Diego Comic-Con (Photo By William Tung – https://www.flickr.com/photos/28277470@N05/53898057219/, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=151195214)

Well Readers, you might remember that after my broken leg/peripheral neuropathy diagnosis, I’ve been using a walking stick when I’m out and about. I have been pleasantly surprised by the number of people who spring to their feet when they see me lurching on to the tube, and also by the ‘dance’ of who stands up and for whom – I will stand if I see someone in worse shape than me, and that almost always leads to a cascade effect of people standing up. Who said that Londoners were unfriendly/uncaring?

Well, this week I was amazed to read about ‘the Batman effect’. Here’s how it goes. Scientist Francesco Pagnini and his colleagues set up an experiment on the Milan underground system, and ran it 138 times. A female wearing a pregnancy ‘bump’ which made her look obviously pregnant got on to the Metro with a colleague who observed and recorded what happened. In 38 percent of cases, the ‘pregnant’ lady was offered a seat. However, if another colleague dressed as Batman entered the carriage through a different door, the number who stood up increased to 68 percent. In 44 percent of Batman plus ‘pregnant’ lady cases, those who volunteered their seat said that they hadn’t even noticed ‘Batman’. So, what the hecky decky is going on?

One theory is that events that are out of the ordinary promote feelings of ‘prosociality’, even when not consciously observed. I suppose we’ve all experienced the sudden burst of chatter when something unusual or eccentric happens on public transport, if it isn’t too scary, though Londoners will often wait until the incident is over before they start discussing it (we’re much too cool to gawp at Batman, even if we did notice him). I remember on one occasion a man wearing a bowler hat, no trousers and stockings and suspenders entered a tube carriage and nobody raised an eyebrow until he got off.

Could it be that people are subliminally not only seeing Batman, but absorbing some of his ethos as ‘the caped crusader?’ The chap in costume wasn’t wearing a mask because it was considered to be ‘too scary’, but was otherwise full garbed in cape, gloves, tights etc. However, the people who stood up were mostly women (about 68 percent when Batman was present, 65 percent when he wasn’t), and they were mostly in their 40s. I wonder if those women grew up with Batman when they were little girls? Or whether they were just more sensitive to what it felt like to be a pregnant woman? Now there would be an interesting vein of inquiry.

In short, I am puzzled about the Batman thing: this was a small sample, and I look forward to a positive rash of fake pregnant ladies and super heroes on tube systems all over the world in the near future. But why would more people stand up in the presence of Batman even if they didn’t notice him? I would be grateful for all  hypotheses, however ‘out there’. And in the meantime, if you see the pair in the photo below, you might want to carry on reading your book.

‘Batman’ and ‘Pregnant Lady’ (from https://www.nature.com/articles/s44184-025-00171-5)