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posted by martyb on Sunday August 23 2020, @07:33AM   Printer-friendly
from the I-am-Bytram! dept.

The ‘Batman Effect’: How having an alter ego empowers you:

A few years ago, assistant psychology professor [at Hamilton College in New York State, Rachel] White took a group of six-year-olds and set them a test of concentration on a computer, in which a series of images flashed and they had to press the space bar whenever they saw a picture of cheese. The task was designed to be rather boring, but the children were told that it was “a very important activity” and that they would be a “good helper” if they worked on the task for as long as possible – increasing their motivation to persevere. As a potential distraction, the researchers also left them with an iPad, with a much more fun game designed to lure them away.

Beforehand, the children were told that it could sometimes be helpful to think about their feelings, if the task got too boring. Some were told to think “Am I working hard?” while others were encouraged to think in the third-person (“Is Hannah working hard?”). A third group were given the option to change persona entirely by inhabiting the role of their favourite fictional hero, such as Batman or Dora the Explorer. They were even given props to dress up, and when they got bored, they were told to consider their behaviour as if they were the actual character, asking, for instance, “Is Batman working hard?”

The researchers had suspected that the alter ego would be a more extreme form of self-distancing, and the results showed exactly that. While the children thinking in the third person spent about 10% more of the total available time on the task that those thinking in the first person, it was the children inhabiting their alter egos who stuck it out for the longest of all. Overall, they spent 13% more of the total available time on the task than those thinking in the third person (and 23% more than those thinking about their behaviour in the first person).

White has also found that adopting an alter ego can also help children to concentrate on a complex card game, in which they had to follow complex rules that kept on changing. Once again, “the Batman effect” seemed to have increased their resolve and concentration, improving their “executive function”.

[...] If you want to try it yourself, White suggests picking a different person for different types of goals – maybe a wise member of your family for a personal dilemma, or a work mentor for a professional problem. “When I was a postdoc, we had a little saying in our lab that if you're an undergrad, pretend to be a grad student. If you are a grad student, pretend to be a postdoc, and if you're a postdoc, pretend to be the leader of the lab – just to get you to that next level,” she says.

Journal Reference:
APA PsycNet, (DOI: 10.1037/emo0000491)
Redirecting, (DOI: 10.1016/j.jesp.2016.11.008)
Sanda Dolcos, Dolores Albarracin. The inner speech of behavioral regulation: Intentions and task performance strengthen when you talk to yourself as a You, European Journal of Social Psychology (DOI: 10.1002/ejsp.2048)
Distanced Self-Talk Enhances Goal Pursuit to Eat Healthier:, Clinical Psychological Science (DOI: 10.1177/2167702619896366)
Rachel E. White, Emily O. Prager, Catherine Schaefer, et al. The “Batman Effect”: Improving Perseverance in Young Children, Child Development (DOI: 10.1111/cdev.12695)


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  • (Score: 5, Insightful) by Rosco P. Coltrane on Sunday August 23 2020, @08:36AM (7 children)

    by Rosco P. Coltrane (4757) on Sunday August 23 2020, @08:36AM (#1040717)

    this study was commissioned by a bunch of CEOs trying to devise a method to convince their workers to put up with longer hours and more menial tasks without complaining.

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  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by Unixnut on Sunday August 23 2020, @08:51AM (6 children)

    by Unixnut (5779) on Sunday August 23 2020, @08:51AM (#1040725)

    > This study was commissioned by a bunch of CEOs trying to devise a method to convince their workers to put up with longer hours and more menial tasks without complaining.

    The answer has always stared them in the plain in the face. Pay more. Amazing how they go to such lengths to find alternatives to this simple rule, then wonder why they can't make their employees "more productive".

    • (Score: 4, Funny) by BsAtHome on Sunday August 23 2020, @09:30AM (1 child)

      by BsAtHome (889) on Sunday August 23 2020, @09:30AM (#1040732)

      The answer has always stared them in the plain in the face. Pay more.

      Well, now they can argue that you just have to imagine to be payed more and become exceptionally rich after you have performed the work, just as in an alter ego rich man universe. Then you should be doing 23% more work for the same pay. However, clever beancounters will start to calculate and soon you will be doing the same amount of work for 23% less pay to compensate for your imaginative wealth!

      (I'll get my coat now)

      • (Score: 3, Touché) by maxwell demon on Sunday August 23 2020, @05:47PM

        by maxwell demon (1608) on Sunday August 23 2020, @05:47PM (#1040872) Journal

        Well, in that case I would suggest them to imagine how my work is exceptionally valuable for the company, and how a salary raise for me will cause the company to increase their profits considerably. ;-)

        OK, I admit this idea has a major flaw: Bean counters generally lack imagination.

        --
        The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
    • (Score: 5, Insightful) by hendrikboom on Sunday August 23 2020, @11:06AM (2 children)

      by hendrikboom (1125) Subscriber Badge on Sunday August 23 2020, @11:06AM (#1040737) Homepage Journal

      Is it that paying more motivates your existing employees?

      Is it that paying more lets you hire better employees?

      Is it that paying more lets your employees pay attention to the work instead of worrying about being able to afford food?

      • (Score: 5, Informative) by Unixnut on Sunday August 23 2020, @12:21PM (1 child)

        by Unixnut (5779) on Sunday August 23 2020, @12:21PM (#1040753)

        > Is it that paying more motivates your existing employees?

        It can do, unless they have hit their capacity/skill limits and can't work any better.

        > Is it that paying more lets you hire better employees?

        Yes it does, assuming your interview can pick them out. You will get people with more experience and skills applying if nothing else.

        > Is it that paying more lets your employees pay attention to the work instead of worrying about being able to afford food?

        Yes, but it applies to more than just food. Things like affording shelter, paying off debts (that would otherwise cause them anxiety and affect their office work). Indirectly less arguments at home with spouse over bills and money will translate to better ability to concentrate and work, so a net benefit.

        #-----#

        I admit my original comment was a bit flippant. It just reminded me of a past company I worked for. Upper management was trying to get the employees to work harder in order to meet some big contracts the Sales team had committed us to. Cue lots of "team building" exercises, forced "company fun time" things, free food/drink and paid transport home if you worked past 11pm. It made very little difference to productive output.

        At the end, one of upper management came to me and asked what could be done to motivate us, as they were worried about hitting the deadlines. It backfired badly when they used upper management themselves as an example of dedication to the company. How upper management would work from 7am to 11pm during crunch time, work weekends, etc... and we should follow.

        I pointed out to them, that all of upper management had been given shares in the company, valued between 5 and 10 million dollars worth. If the company manages to deliver the big contracts on time, they can expect a windfall in share price, and in increased dividends for all of them, so no wonder they are working like mad for it. They are motivated by the large amount of money as the prize.

        However us normal employees, we have no shares, we are on salary (nowhere near the million USD mark), we get no raises, or bonuses if we meet those deadlines. Perhaps if they paid us more, we would work more. If you want us to go "above and beyond" for the company, make us feel like we are part of it by having a share of the prize at the end.

        Did it happen? Of course not. Rather they realised the "carrot approach" was not going to work, so decided to use the "stick". Namely non stop performance grading/management, and whoever is at the bottom of the performance curve gets let go every quarter. Cue a mad rush for everyone to outdo each other in amount of work done so they are not "the bottom" come "culling day" as we would call it.

        I hate to say, it worked. Fear can motivate almost as well as money, and is cheaper for the company to boot. In my opinion it was a long term strategy failure though, because what happened is all the good people left of their own accord, so you had only the people who could not find another job easily left behind, and under increasing stress and risk of burnout.
        So it is better for a company to find a way to convince people to work harder/longer for less pay, that the people agree with, but that does not involve sharing more money with them. Hence all these studies, motivational events, attempts to convince us we are a "caring family" rather than a business, etc... I see it at every company, even the one I work at.

        • (Score: 2) by acid andy on Monday August 24 2020, @01:09AM

          by acid andy (1683) on Monday August 24 2020, @01:09AM (#1040981) Homepage Journal

          Gee, I'm getting a little bit angry here on your behalf and I didn't even work there! When an employer starts using stick rather than carrot and not respecting their employees it's pretty sure to demotivate me and make me lose any respect I had for them too. Good on you for pointing out the disparity when they asked how to motivate their staff though.

          --
          If a cat has kittens, does a rat have rittens, a bat bittens and a mat mittens?
    • (Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Sunday August 23 2020, @01:26PM

      by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Sunday August 23 2020, @01:26PM (#1040779) Journal

      Don't know about that. Someone who is grossly underpaid, yeah, money is a factor. People who are maybe underpaid a little bit? Maybe money is a factor. What about people who are being paid as well as, and maybe even a little better than their peers who are doing the same job? Not so much.

      How do you account for a supervisor who gets paid three times as much as you are paid, but never seems to get anything right? The human animal is a complex creature, after all. Money is important, but money doesn't solve all his problems.