Feedback is 快猫短视频鈥檚 popular sideways look at the latest science and technology news. You can submit items you believe may amuse readers to Feedback by emailing feedback@newscientist.com
Caped crusaders
It has been some time since Mrs Feedback was pregnant, but she still remembers the bother of trying to get a seat on public transport while having a belly the size and shape of a volleyball. Other passengers couldn鈥檛 always be counted on to give up their seats.
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But what if Feedback had snuck onto the bus, dressed as Batman? To our surprise and bafflement, this might have made a difference. Researchers led by Francesco Pagnini on the Milan metro system, in a study published in npj Mental Health Research in November 2025.
On 138 occasions, a female team member wore a prosthetic bump and got onto a train, accompanied by an observer. In some of these trials, a third experimenter also boarded, in a Batman costume. The get-up included 鈥渢he characteristic cape, logo, and pointed cowl, making it easily recognizable鈥�, although they did leave out the mask 鈥渢o avoid potentially scaring passengers鈥�.
Feedback has looked at the photo of the costume in the paper and we can say with confidence: nobody was going to be scared. It looks like the costume George Clooney wore in Batman and Robin, and that wouldn鈥檛 frighten anybody.
Anyway, passengers offered their seats to the 鈥減regnant鈥� woman 67 per cent of the time when Batman was present, compared with 38 per cent when he was absent. The implication, the team says, is that 鈥渦nexpected events can promote prosociality鈥�. Notably, the passengers often didn鈥檛 consciously notice Batman: 44 per cent of those who gave up their seats in the presence of the Caped Crusader reported not having seen him.
It occurred to Feedback that maybe Batman, being a social justice warrior of long standing, primed passengers to think about concepts like fairness and decency. The researchers also thought of this, but they point out that experiments on social priming have often failed to replicate, priming being one of the phenomena that fell foul of the 鈥渞eplication crisis鈥� in the social sciences. Hence their focus on the unexpectedness of Batman.
Extrapolating, the team suggests 鈥減sychologists may consider ways to integrate 鈥榩ositive disruptions鈥� into daily life鈥�, such as 鈥渁rtistic or theatrical interventions in public spaces鈥� that would 鈥渕omentarily break routine and engage individuals more deeply with their environment and community鈥�. This all reminds Feedback of the concept of 鈥�nudging鈥� people into better behaviour, which, like social priming, has generally failed to replicate. In any case, it would seem to require an awful lot of costumes.
Maybe this says something about the places Feedback has lived, but we would barely look twice if someone got on the train dressed as Batman. We would just assume they were going to their local comic convention. Maybe the Milan cosplay scene is less vibrant than elsewhere.
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Read me
Feedback has remarked previously on the phenomenon of academics using pop culture references in paper titles, or otherwise writing whimsical titles in the hope of persuading us to read their work. It鈥檚 a delicate line to walk, but when it hits, it hits. Full marks, then, to Rebekah White and Anna Remington for their 2018 study titled 鈥溾��.
It explores how often autistic and non-autistic people personify non-living objects and how this affects their emotional lives. At first, Feedback thought we didn鈥檛 do this 鈥� our vacuum cleaner remains resolutely nameless 鈥� but then we remembered that we have tended to name our cars (we are currently driving Kitty, having sold Carol because she was rubbish) and our bicycles.
Clearly, we aren鈥檛 alone. When the paper was recently, one user responded: 鈥�.鈥� Feedback can answer that: put a brown floppy hat and some big black eyebrows on it, and name it after the iconic Mario baddie, the Goomba. That will rhyme with at least one brand.
Another said: 鈥� take one more croissant or bun from the counter if it鈥檚 the last one left after I鈥檝e taken the amount I need. Otherwise, the poor thing will worry and be upset that no one needs it鈥︹�� Feedback does that too, but for different reasons.
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Reviewer 2 strikes again
Before an academic can get a paper published, they must first run the gauntlet of peer review, in which other researchers critique their work (often anonymously). Academics therefore talk about 鈥渞eviewer 2鈥� in the same way that the rest of us talk about Satan, Pol Pot or people who talk in the quiet carriage of trains.
Historian Andre Pagliarini took to social media to a particularly egregious instance of peer review: 鈥渁 first: in rejecting an article I submitted to a journal, reviewer 2 noted I failed to engage the work of one Andre Pagliarini鈥�.
As others were quick to point out, this is a 鈥渄amned if you do鈥︹�� situation, because if Pagliarini had included more citations to his own work, he would either be accused of self-promotion or have his paper rejected for lack of novelty.
Feedback found ourselves mentally uttering the same line that others wrote in response: 鈥淏ut doctor, I am Pagliarini.鈥� And if you don鈥檛 get that joke, tough luck, because Feedback has run out of room to explain it.
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