Batman Effect Boosted Kids' Perseverance

Batman inspired a real psychology finding nicknamed the "Batman Effect," where pretending to be Batman helped young kids stick with a boring task longer. In a study of 180 children aged 4 and 6, researchers gave them a repetitive 10-minute assignment while a tempting video game sat there as an optional break, and kids who role-played as an admired character like Batman stayed on-task the most. Kids who used a third-person self-talk style did better than first-person too, and 6-year-olds outlasted 4-year-olds overall.

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