Superhero Films’ Impacts on Prosocial Behavior: The Mediating Role of State-Empathy and Violence Justification

Abstract

The present research aimed to observe superhero films’ impacts on prosocial behavior, mediated by state-empathy (cognitive, affective and associative empathy) and moral justification. To achieve this goal, two online experiments were conducted, each with 200 Brazilian volunteers (Study 1: 70.5% women, mean age = 28.82, SD = 9.22. Study 2: 52.5% men, mean age = 27.63, SD = 9.25). We used a scene from Batman v Superman as the stimulus in the experimental groups. Prosocial behavior was measured using a food allocation task. Data from both studies showed that even when featuring violent elements, superhero films positively impacted prosocial behavior. These effects were indirect, mediated by associative empathy in Study 1 and moral justification in Study 2. Results highlight the complex relationship between prosocial violent media (aggressive content with prosocial goals) and behavior. We also emphasize the research’s novelty, as studies that investigate media content that is both negative and positive are still scarce.

Keywords:

• Superhero media
• prosocial behavior
• empathy
• moral disengagement

Disclosure Statement

The authors report there are no competing interests to declare.

Ethics Approval Statement

This research was submitted and approved by the Universidade Federal da Paraíba (Centro de Ciências da Saúde) Research Ethics committee (approval number: 5.538.952).

Data Availability Statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author, upon reasonable request.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior with a grant provided to Isabella Leandra Silva Santos, and by the Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq) with a grant provided to Carlos Eduardo Pimentel.

Notes on contributors

Isabella Leandra Silva Santos

Isabella Leandra Silva Santos is a PhD Student at the Universidade Federal da Paraíba, works mainly with short and long-term media effects on aggressive and prosocial outcomes. Her current central topics of research are antisocial online behavior and superhero media.

Carlos Eduardo Pimentel

Carlos Eduardo Pimentel, PhD, is an Associate Professor at Universidade Federal da Paraíba and founder/coordinator of the Media Psychology Laboratory (LPM). His main research area is Group Processes and Communication, working specifically on the following topics: musical preference, media, personality, alcohol and drug use, attitudes, psychological measures’ validation, aggression and other antisocial and prosocial behaviors.