From a young age, we are exposed to superheroes – characters like Batman and Spiderman – but have you ever wondered why we love them so much, or what effects they may have on us as people?

Evidence shows that infants as young as six months old enjoy characters who commit acts of justice. Characters and people who have a strong sense of morality and justice naturally appeal to humans, and most superheroes fall into that category. 

Superheroes often have strong morals, helping to inspire us and guide us. They always use their abilities for the benefit of society and others instead of themselves. Superheroes make us want to be good and help others.

The way that we interact with superheroes often follows Social Comparison Theory. This theory, first proposed in 1954, suggests that we are constantly comparing ourselves to those around us – often those who are similar to us or that we look up to. It also says that we evaluate our own skills by comparing ourselves to others.

When we view superheroes, we often look up to them; we see them as powerful and kind. We compare our ability and kindness towards others to superheroes, after all superheroes are constantly used in posters or messages about being kind to others.

When we interact with superheroes in this way, it can help us strive to be kinder. Superheroes make us want to be better people and sometimes they can even help us to feel better about ourselves.

There have been studies showing the effects that superheroes can have on the self esteem of men and women. While superheroes can cause women to have lower body esteem, they have been shown to have a positive effect on women’s belief in body competence and the importance of it. When a similar study was done with men, after the experiment men who were exposed to muscular superheroes did better on a strength test with hand grip than those who were not. That test also showed that being exposed to both muscular and non-muscular superheroes improved men’s self esteem. 

Superheroes have been a large part of pop-culture for nearly a century, having been loved by children and adults alike. They make us feel better about ourselves and society, making us constantly strive to be better.