What Would Batman Eat?

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Back in 2011 a study was conducted to see if children could be primed into making healthier fast food choices. Let’s be real, if a kid goes to McDonald’s and orders a Happy Meal, do you really think he or she is going to opt out the French fries for some apple slices? Probably not, but maybe they would if they knew that’s what Batman ate.

The study gathered 22 children ranging from ages 6 to 12. The children were presented with photos of 6 admirable role models and 6 not so admirable role models. The children were then asked “Would this person eat apple slices or French fries”. Amongst those admirable role models were Batman and Spiderman. About 45% of the kids said that these superheroes would choose the apples over the fries, which was a big percentage compared to the controlled condition, aka those kids that were just asked “apples or fries?” without the enticement of a role model. The study drew the conclusion, “Advising a parent to ask their child ‘What would Batman (or another admired character or person) eat?’ might be an easy step to take in what could be a healthier fast food world.”

I guess this is one powerful reason that all parents should stop bashing Batman and start using his power of fighting evil to fight the evil junk foods in and around the household. Just a thought.

But guess who might agree with me? Batdad. Batdad is a vine user whose videos have gone viral. He is a dad of two kids, one boy and one girl. In his six second videos, he puts on a Bat mask, and talks in a deep Christian Bale type Bat voice. His vines are hysterical and pretty powerful when it comes to parenting and sending messages. Though some times his kids, wife, and dogs do things in the vines that most parents wouldn’t want their family members to do, like swearing, Batdad tries to embark on the innocence of childhood. He knows his family members, especially his kids are going to mess up, but that’s why there’s Batdad… to save the day, of course.

So if one man can get millions of followers by showing his support for Batman and the way he uses the Caped Crusader to raise his kids, then maybe we can all lighten up a bit and raise our children, nieces, nephews, or baby cousins, with at least the idea of “What would Batman eat?” I mean what’s the worst that could happen? Kids choose the fries over the apples? They already are. Perhaps even us unhealthy adults can follow Batman and Batdad’s model and ask ourselves the “What would this person eat” question.

There’s this thing called the cultivation theory. It states that the more we watch television, in this case vine, the more we start to “live” in the television world. So maybe if we showed our kids videos and clips of Batman, or even Batdad, in a positive light, the more our kids will grow up with the idea that Batman is a morally responsible character. Do we have to monitor and filter out the good from the bad? Yes, of course we do. We have to filter everything now a days including our children’s Halloween candy, but are you going to stop them from trick-or-treating? Doubtful.

Would Batman/Batdad eat that?

 No. 

Well…. Maybe they would…