Embracing the Batman Effect

Need a boost to get you through your next deadline? The Batman Effect is a psychological phenomenon identified through research conducted by Rachel White and her colleagues at the University of Washington. The term comes from a study published in 2016 in the journal Child Development. The Batman Effect suggests that children can improve their perseverance and focus on a task by pretending to be a strong, competent character like Batman.

Researchers asked 4 and 6-year-old children to perform a repetitive task for 10 minutes. Some children were told to think about their thoughts and feelings while working (self-immersed), others were told to think about themselves from an outside perspective (self-distanced), and a third group was told to pretend they were Batman (exemplar condition).

Children who pretended to be Batman worked longer and more diligently than those in the other conditions. They exhibited better perseverance and self-control. By taking on the persona of Batman, children created psychological distance from their own limitations and frustrations. This allowed them to view their task from a more capable perspective. This effect suggests that role-play and imagination can be powerful tools for improving focus, self-control, and perseverance, not just in children but potentially in adults as well. The study highlights the potential benefits of self-distancing strategies in emotional and behavioral regulation.

Rethink everything.

If you’re looking to sidestep the status quo, switch off the automatic pilot or awaken the senses, here’s a book for you. (That I happen to be its co-author is just a coincidence.)  Within these pages you’ll find answers to the following:

  1. How can thinking backwards propel me forwards?
  2. Why is it preferable to listen to the news in French?
  3. Which four words will improve my outlook forever?
  4. Can I journey into space without the need of a rocket?
  5. Why should I carry a lemon at all times?
  6. Is it possible to get rich while enjoying nature?
  7. Why do I think the way I do?

We invite you to disengage from the commonplace and open your neural pathways to more expansive thinking. Tap into 110 brand new secrets of SuperOptimism, available now.

Transatlantic Failures? Or Worldwide Heroes?

In 1927, Charles Lindbergh received acclaim for piloting The Spirit of St. Louis across the ocean — the first non-stop transatlantic flight between New York and Paris.

Yet two weeks before,  French aviators Charles Nungesser and François Coli also attempted the journey in an effort to win the Orteig Prize. Strapped into their byplane L’Oiseau Blanc, they took off from Paris for New York, only to disappear before arrival.  The remains of their plywood and canvas-covered plane have never been officially recovered.

A sad story of failure? The tragedy of a near-miss? On the contrary. To this day, the disappearance of L’Oiseau Blanc is considered one of aviation’s great mysteries.  Creating a great mystery is an amazing accomplishment in anyone’s book, and 80 years later their attempt continues to be the source of investigation and conjecture.

And how many pilots from yesteryear are celebrated with a rooftop restaurant in Paris named after their doomed byplane, featuring a delicious “pâté en croûte” complemented by artichoke and foie gras from Aveyron?  Further proof that bad outcomes do not equate with failure, but lead to fine dining opportunities in the world’s most romantic city. It is in the attempt that life is best measured.  All hail Nungresser and Coli, true heroes who tried their best!

Pie for breakfast?

No one knows how much time they have on earth. We act as if we must take care of ourselves so we can live to be 100. But how many of us make it to that age? And do you really want to?

Maybe it’s time to wake up and reshuffle the deck. Starting with a piece of blueberry pie for breakfast. It’s not as deviant as you may think. Pie’s a pastry, after all. It’s meant for breakfast since it goes great with coffee. Plus wth breakfast pie, you have all day to burn off the calories. And what goes better with pie than ice cream? Add a dollop of vanilla with your pie; it’s no different than putting cream in your coffee.

“The pie is an English institution, which, planted on American soil, forthwith ran rampant and burst forth into an untold variety of genera and species. Not merely the old mince pie, but a thousand strictly American seedlings from that main stock, evinced the power of American housewives to adapt old institutions to new uses.” – Harriet Beecher Stowe 1869 novel “Oldtown Folks.”

Pie became so strongly identified with America by the 19th century that writers and journalists from both near and far declared Americans to be suffering a kind of pie madness. New Englanders, who were particularly prone to pie-eating, made good fodder for satire and good targets for scolding by increasingly health-conscious cookbook writers. As more Americans traveled abroad and became acquainted with European food culture, it became fashionable to condemn pie as food for the “rustic.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson found pie to be just such a pleasing medium, as his friend James Thayer recalled, describing a breakfast taken with Emerson and friends in the 1870s. Pie, Thayer reported, “at breakfast was one of Mr. Emerson’s weaknesses.” Emerson offered slices to his fellow diners, who one by one declined, prompting him to protest in humor, “but … what is pie for?”

*Note: Apple pie shown above available from Michelle’s in Norwalk, CT. But not if we get there first.

To the moon, Alice.

Now for less than a cost of a steampunk-brewed coffee in Brooklyn, you can take yourself past the beach, the water park, even Europe, and enjoy the ride of your life into the outer reaches of the universe. Try the book that Kirkus calls “an eclectic, entertaining and often enlightening examination of the inner workings of the mind.”

Madmen & luxury cars. In 8 words or less.

 

 

 

The MKZ Hybrid spot is among the work featured in a new campaign for Lincoln from Team Detriot, with the gentle man who potrays a partnet at Sterling Cooper Fraper Pryce as the narrator. What did I have to do with this? See the excerpt below.

 

 

That’s right, 8 words. The explanation: my partner John Tymkiv and I created the theme “Smarter than luxury.” CCO Toby Barlow and EVP Erick McClellan took the premise and with their team fashioned it into the work you see above. The coclusion: it’s always gratifying to contribute ideas that make it to the finish line. “It’s not just luxur. It’s smarter than that.” can be evidenced at a Lincoln dealer near you.