Hacker News Reader

Comment by mirmor23 | Hacker News Reader

> We conducted 138 observation sessions (61 experimental condition, 77 control condition). In the control condition, the chances that a passenger would leave their spot were 37.66%, while when Batman was there, the chances increased to 67.21%.

imaginary character bumps up the chances of helping others - who could have guessed we are such fine species?

View on HN

Does this mean religion can be good for the third of the population that needs an imaginary character to be good?

of course. this experiment is not novel. in the courts witness would swear on the bible (not sure now).

Heard this from an Indian friend, and not sure how much of this true - Indian cities used to have problem of folks chewing tobacco and spitting everywhere, so in some places they would have an icon of a Hindu god, and it worked (maybe not with non-hindu).

> Heard this from an Indian friend, and not sure how much of this true - Indian cities used to have problem of folks chewing tobacco and spitting everywhere, so in some places they would have an icon of a Hindu god, and it worked (maybe not with non-hindu).

Probably worked with non-hindu as well; after all, people don't usually spit on or in front of religious idols even if those idols are from a different religion.

You don't need to be religious to not spit in front of an idol... I mean if someone put their bag there you would also not spit there. The experiment needs to be repeated with more items!

Reply on news.ycombinator.com