Page 14 - Go Connected - Saddleworth East - February 2019

Why do
we love a
Superhero?
Why do we Love a Superhero?
The Hancock household is eagerly awaiting the release of Avengers: Endgame in less than two months (current release date April 26th). It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say my entire family are hooked on the whole superhero genre. And we’re not alone. All over the country there are regular debates about whether Superman would beat Thor in a fight, or why Iron Man is two
words while Batman is only one.
Our kids dress up like them and carry packed lunches in plastic boxes emblazoned with their images (actually some adults do this too.) But why?
After watching the clips, the infants were presented with replicas of both the intervening and the non- intervening third figures. They consistently preferred the one
According to recent research from Kyoto University in Japan, our love of superheroes starts before we can talk. In a series of experiments, infants as young as six months were shown short animations
Further experiments showed that extremely young babies couldn’t tell the difference between a saviour who was simply in the right place at the right time, and one who actively stepped in to help. They didn’t grasp the nuances. But by just 18 months old they did understand that difference and preferred
in which one figure chased and bumped into a second. Meanwhile, a third figure watched from afar. In version A, the third figure steps in and prevents the collision, while in version B it runs away without intervening.
the hero. This suggests that our concept of justice, and heroism develops very early on.
As we grow up superhero stories seem to resonate with us. We identify with the themes, with the dilemmas and problems that
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who saved the day. These results suggest that babies are capable of understanding and recognising heroism.