2013 Merchandise & Miscellaneous News Archives

February 2, 2013: Flying Like Superman Leads to Altruistic Behavior

Superman Experiment An experiment set up by Stanford researches has revealed that people are more likely to help others after flying like Superman.

    They put 30 men and 30 women in a simulator and told them that a diabetic child was stranded somewhere in the city; the subjects had to find him and deliver an insulin injection.

    Half the group controlled their movements with their arms, like Superman; the others experienced a simulation of a helicopter. The experiment was set so that two minutes into the simulation, no matter what mode of transport was used, the subject found the sick child.

    After removing the virtual reality goggles, each person then sat with an experimenter, ostensibly to answer a few questions about the experience.

    During the interview, however, the experimenter would 'accidentally' knock over a cup filled with 15 pens. After waiting five seconds to see if the subject would help her pick them up, she began collecting the pens, one pen per second, to give the person another opportunity to help.

    And, found the team, the people who had just flown as Superman were quick to lend a hand, beginning to pick up the pens within three seconds. The helicopter group, however, picked up the first pen, on average, after six seconds. While everyone who flew like Superman picked up some pens, six participants who rode in the helicopter failed to offer any help at all.

You can read the complete report on this study at the TGDaily.com website.

Thanks to Vinayak Pande for the lead on this story.



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