A new study found that when people were in the presence of someone dressed as Batman, prosocial behavior increased. In our culture’s modern mythmaking, the superhero archetype is the epitome of a prosocial behavior, since the superpowered (or superwealthy) individuals fight for the greater good, often against overwhelming odds. In the control condition, only the woman boarded the train, but in the experimental condition, a person dressed as Batman also boarded along with the woman. “This suggests a potential mechanism through which novelty and unpredictability promote prosocial behavior.” In other words, the appearance of a strange figure shattered the “routine scripts” of riding the metro, according to the authors.