Superhero Movies: The Truth About Our Love for Superpowers
Superhero movies have taken over our screens. We love watching people with impossible abilities—flying, teleporting, bending time, reading minds. We admire our heroes as they save the world and fight against the forces of evil. These stories inspire us and make us wonder: what would it be like to have those powers ourselves?
But let’s take a moment to strip away all the action and heroics attached to these movies. At their core, superpowers are not just about saving the world. They’re about something selfish. They’re about satisfying our innate desire to be better than everyone else. And I’m here to prove it.
The Fantasy of Being Special
Frankly, superpowers are just an unfair advantage. They’re not about hard work or skill—they’re about superiority. And who wouldn’t want that? Superpowers enable us to stand out in ways that no one else can.
Think about it: when we fantasize about having superpowers, it’s not because we want to make the world a better place. Sure, that’s what we tell ourselves, but deep down, we’re more interested in making our world better. If given a superpower, most of us wouldn’t set out to fight evil. We’d want to fly to avoid traffic, win arguments by reading minds, or get rich using super speed.
Superpowers, at their core, aren’t about altruism. They’re about selfish convenience and the thrill of being extraordinary.
The Problem With Equality
What makes superpowers so special is their exclusivity. If everyone had the same powers, they’d lose their "super" status. Imagine a world where everyone could fly or teleport. Would you marvel at it? No. It would simply replace cars and planes.
If everyone could lift a car with one finger, it wouldn’t be impressive anymore. If everyone could read minds, privacy would disappear, and relationships would become unbearably transparent. Superpowers would cease to be powers—they’d just become another mundane, burdensome part of life.
This is why superpowers lose their magic when they’re shared. They only matter because they make one person stand out from the crowd. It’s not the power itself we love—it’s the idea of being better than everyone else. Superpowers are a way to win at life without playing fair, and that’s exactly why we’re so drawn to them.
The Dark Side of the Dream
Superhero movies let us indulge this fantasy guilt-free. We cheer for the hero because they’re fighting the bad guys. But deep down, we envy their power. We don’t want to be Superman because he’s good. We want to be Superman because he’s untouchable—because he can do things no one else can.
What does that say about us? Superpowers, by their nature, are selfish. They’re not about equality, fairness, or teamwork. They’re about standing above the crowd and being the exception to the rule.
When Everyone Is Super, No One Is
There’s a reason we don’t fantasize about a world where everyone has superpowers. That’s not the dream. The dream is to be the one who can fly while everyone else is stuck in traffic. If everyone had the same abilities, it wouldn’t be a superpower anymore.
It’s like money. People don’t want to be rich in a world where everyone is rich. Sure, we talk about policies that push for equality, but deep down, the wealthy don’t want a world where everyone has wealth. Why? Because the power isn’t in being rich—it’s in the gap between being rich and poor. The excitement lies in the imbalance, and that’s what people want to maintain.
This is why there will always be inequality.
What Superpowers Say About Us
Superhero movies aren’t just stories about good versus evil. They’re a reflection of our deepest desires. They show us how much we crave an edge, how much we want to win without trying, and how much we enjoy being better than others.
It’s not a pretty truth, but it’s the reality. Superpowers are a fantasy we admire not because they’re impossible, but because they’re built on inequality. They remind us that, deep down, we don’t want a level playing field—even when we claim we do.
Superpowers, in the end, aren’t just about saving the world. They’re about saving ourselves from the ordinary—and making sure everyone else stays there.
Does watching too much super hero movies affect ones psychology?
I have read about several studies on the effect of watching TV series and films, mostly as curious data in scientific publications. And the results of two studies, one British and one American, are particularly interesting.
In the case of the British study, from 2019 and led by Daisy Fancourt (from the University of London), a reduction in verbal memory was found in the people evaluated. The terms were more like: the consumption of 3.5 hours of audiovisual content such as Netflix could increase the deterioration of verbal memory or semantic fluency. This study was carried out on people over 60 years old, and was interested in possible factors that increase the risk of senile dementia, which makes its results (perhaps) too specific and not very applicable to other populations.
In the American study, coordinated by Dr. Ryan Dougherty (Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore) between 1990 and 2011; they detected cognitive deterioration in the people they evaluated. Perhaps what surprised me most about this study was that they diagnosed that those who watched more than 2.5 hours a day of television tended to have smaller than normal entorhinal and prefrontal cortexes in their brains. The entorhinal cortex is located in the medial temporal lobe and functions as a hub in an extended network for memory and orientation, so if these two areas fail, the risk of developing diseases and/or mental disorders such as dementia, antisocial behavior, and schizophrenia increases.
As you can see, excessive consumption of movies and series can be harmful to health, and they are also associated with a sedentary lifestyle, which leads to an increased risk of obesity, heart problems, and other ailments.
Well, I don't want to scare you and say that watching movies is bad, what happens is that everything in excess is harmful. So it's fine to enjoy a movie and relax, but you have to be careful that it doesn't become something like an addiction.
I have gone on at length in my comment, and the question was not even intended for me (!LOLZ), I apologize for that, and I am signing off, hoping that everyone is well.
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Thank you so much for taking your time to explain. Now I know why it's not advisable for kids to watch TV for long hours
definitely!
I havent read this study-- I would appreciate if you could share a link to the study... But I would say that given the subjects of the study, I think that the effects cannot be wholly attributed to consumption of audiovisual content... I personally think that some audio visual contents like podcasts and interviews help to improve vocabulary and speaking prowess.
However, I think that the effect would have been due to the sedentary posture that is required for consuming audovisual content for extended periods of time.
With this study, I would not say with certainty that degredation of the prefrontal cortex was a direct result of watching movies... I think I heard about this study at some time and they were studying people who were watching traditional TV which included those very dumb adverts and extremely stupid shows...
It would be no surprise to see some level of intellectual decline in a person who consumes a lot of dull content, which was pretty much what traditional TV has been for a while.
However, I agree 100 percent with your point that watching TV or movies, or anything audiovisual actually increases sedentary lifestyle and therefore can increase one's risk for obesity and heart disease.
PS: I always love your comments, they are stimulating and a breath of fresh air.
Thanks for stopping by.
I have notes from the British study, because I worked on a review of a review article for a friend. I don't have the original article, but in the colleague's review he pointed out that he had taken it from https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29977058/ where there was a link for free download of the text. I hope that publication is still available.
Thank you.
The study looked into the relationship between social engagement and cognitive decline in individuals over 52yrs.
That is a good question
Watching a lot of superhero movies can have psychological effects, both positive and negative, depending on factors such as the viewer's age, mindset, and frequency of consumption.
Let me stick with one or two negative ones.
We all have the psychological phenomenon when we watch movies... it happens that we gradually start to identify with the main character of the movie... and in super hero movies, it would be the super hero... This creates a form of unrealistic expectations in the mind, as we would like to aspire to be the individual that we are admiring.
Secondly, there is the desensitization to violence... Because violence sells, most movies involve violence, especially super hero ones. A gradual exposure to violence means that young minds become numb to the sufferings of others.
You remind me of a Chinese friend who shared with me an adage from his region that said something like: People don't hate privileges, they hate not having those privileges.
And it also makes me think about the problem that inequality can be due in many cases to a desire to establish a higher 'status' rather than a real question of production or rational economy. Sometimes, groups in power prefer to let other groups of people die so as not to give them the 'privilege' of using the resources they have available. It sounds cruel, but it is a human reality that has been repeated throughout history in too many places in the world.
By the way, on a lighter note, that part about 'if everyone is special, then no one is special anymore', made me remember a line of dialogue that was very key in an animated film from years ago, it was The Incredibles (2004).
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no truer words spoken
I have seen the incredibles and I do wish that it was a franchise.... but I cant seem to recall the line of dialogue you are referring to.
The line I'm saying is spoken by different characters throughout the film, by different characters, and each one gives it a particular tone. I think the most intense one is when, near the final third, the villain talks to the father of the family about superheroes and explains that he's going to play at being a superhero with his inventions, and after he gets fed up with that, he'll sell the inventions to everyone, so when everyone is 'super' no one will be 'special' anymore.
The villain had become disillusioned with the attitude of his childhood hero and had developed a sick and vengeful obsession with supers, so making their powers commonplace was part of a great revenge. Eliminating what is considered special, not by destroying it, but by vulgarizing it, making it so commonplace that it would lose its sense of rarity.
Yes.
I think that is the ultimate revenge a villain can craft for a superhero. It's a testament to his ingenuity.