SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
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)
(Score: 5, Insightful) by RamiK on Sunday August 23 2020, @12:34PM (3 children)
The way I explain the Trinity doctrine is that in the early days of the Church there were a lot of reasonable and well articulated theories regarding the nature of Christ but they were largely incompatible and had far-reaching consequences on matters of law and government. So, naturally, their proponents ended up locked in a civil war bleeding each other dry for half a century. When it all ended, the least reasonable but most legal-status-quo-compatible theory was elected and made dogma: The Trinity doctrine.
A victory for game theory, peaceful compromise, and the eternal stupidity of man.
And to tie it all up, consider the grown man in tights running around at night dressed as a bat being the hero that we raise our children to believe in since we can't express any actual moral values beyond "hitting baddies is good" as they conflict with our (corrupted) ways of life.
compiling...
(Score: 3, Touché) by HiThere on Sunday August 23 2020, @01:52PM (2 children)
If you think that's bad, read the Bhagavad Gita.
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by RamiK on Sunday August 23 2020, @03:41PM (1 child)
They're all bad. It's survivor's bias: All religions, literary role models and dogmas end up authoritarian in reflection of their respective societies or get replaced and perish regardless of how they started.
It's only that I think we should be expecting a bit more from a published scientific paper on children's psychology. Maybe an anthropomorphic train promoting technological progress and industry or something instead of this batsuit clad vigilante... Whatever.
compiling...
(Score: 3, Funny) by Booga1 on Sunday August 23 2020, @10:28PM
Dude, Batman is the ultimate promoter of technological progress and industry! The suit, the gadgets, the batmobile, the plane, the sub, Wayne Industries, all that stuff and more!
Sure, he gets a bit out of hand beating up some crooks and mentally ill people from time to time, but that's largely due to a traumatized childhood. He's just as much a victim as everyone else in all this.