Researchers at New York University and MIT have discovered that people with Superman on their mind are less likely than others to help people in need. The reason, the psychologists propose, is that the average person quickly realizes that there's no way they can compare to the Man of Steel. Priming the subjects in the study with thoughts of other, well, lesser superheroes did not have the same effect. For the study, published in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, students were asked to volunteer for a fake community service program after being cued to think about Superman or other superheroes. From a New Scientist article:
"Students who thought of Superman volunteered much less of their time than those who thought about other superheroes. Furthermore, Superman-primed subjects were significantly less likely to show up at a meeting for volunteers held three months after they were initially asked to participate."
