Brigham Young
University
There's a lot of good
that kids can take away from watching their favorite superheroes -- defending
and protecting the weak, using their talents to help others and fighting for a
cause that's bigger than themselves, to name a few.
BYU family life
professor Sarah M. Coyne decided to study what it was, exactly, that
preschool-aged boys and girls took away from exposure to superhero culture, and
it wasn't the many positive traits that shone through.
Coyne found that
children who frequently engage with superhero culture are more likely to be
physically and relationally aggressive one year later. She even found the
children were not more likely to be defenders of kids being picked on by
bullies and were not more likely to be prosocial.
The study published
this week in the Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology.
Last spring, Coyne
authored a study on the effects of Disney Princess culture on young children,
finding the perpetuation of stereotypes that could have damaging effects. The
research received national and international media attention. It also trended
worldwide on Facebook.
Like her
recommendations about princess culture, Coyne echoes the same sentiment with
superhero culture: these findings do not suggest that parents need to totally
disengage their children from superheroes.
"Again, I'd say
to have moderation," Coyne said. "Have your kids involved in all
sorts of activities, and just have superheroes be one of many, many things that
they like to do and engage with."
Findings like these
give parents the opportunity to have a conversation with their children. Coyne
says to not be afraid of pointing out the positives as well as the negatives of
the media their children are consuming.
Coyne theorizes that a
reason why children may latch on to the violent behavior and not the prosocial
behavior of superheroes is in part, due to the complexity of the superhero
media.
The vast majority of superhero programs are not created for preschool
children, even though the current study found that many preschoolers still
regularly watched superhero media.
These programs contain complex storylines
that interweave violence and prosocial behavior, and preschoolers do not have
the cognitive capability to pick out the wider moral message that is often
portrayed.
Coyne also states that
there is likely some additional desensitization associated with consuming
violent media. Reduction in cognitive and emotional responses has been shown to
be associated with exposure to violent media.
That reduction of response to the
victims of violence on the TV screen, computer or tablet, could be associated
to a lack of empathy for the victims of violence on the playground or at
school.
Participants in the
study consisted of 240 children whose parents responded about the level of
engagement their children had with superhero culture.
Parents were asked how
often their children watched superhero media and how much they identified with
various superheroes.
Children were also individually interviewed, asked
identify 10 popular superheroes, identify their favorite superhero and explain
why they liked that superhero the best.
The children's
responses in the study about their favorite superheroes provided important
insight in the study:
Various responses
included superhero merchandise (26%), image (20%) and interpersonal
characteristics (21%).
Given the focus of the current study, we used a subcode
to examine any defending or violent themes.
Of those who specified
characteristics in superheroes, 10% noted some defending ability of the superheroes:
"Because he shoots webs and he saves people."
Twenty percent of these
children associated their favorite superhero with some type of violent skills.
For example, "He's big and can punch" and "He smashes and gets
angry."
Some were milder, while others suggested blatant aggression.
"Because he can smash and destroy everything, and he doesn't care because
he's a big bully."
Another child stated that Captain America was his
favorite superhero "because he can kill." The remaining 70% of
skills-related comments by children were benign in nature: "Because he is
big and strong" and "Because he is cool and can fly."
Coauthors on the study
included fellow BYU professors Laura Stockdale and David Nelson, along with BYU
graduate students Kevin Collier and Lee Essig, as well as Jennifer Linder from
Linfield College.
With three sons of her
own, and another on the way in two weeks, Coyne has seen superhero culture
played out in her own home.
"It is nearly
impossible to avoid the superhero culture in America," Coyne said. "I
currently have a three-year-old son who likes Spiderman even though he has
never seen the movies. He dresses up as Spiderman occasionally and will go
around pretending to shoot webs. The point of the study is not to ban
superheroes as they can be a fun and magical part of childhood. However, the
superhero culture can become consuming, especially if kids are watching the
movies, playing with the toys, strongly identifying with the characters,
dressing up, etc. This study is all about balance. For example, my son is
almost equally as likely to pretend he is Elsa and belt out the lyrics to 'Let
it Go. It's about finding balance and ways to talk about superheroes that focus
on the positive aspects."