If you saw Batman in real life...would you guess he's a bat?

[Rorschach]

Would you realize he was supposed to be a bat? lol.

Always found it funny in comics when criminals describe him as a giant bat etc, I'd never make the connection.

[t hedge coke]

That's why he says "I'm Batman" when he meets a mugger. Saves time.

If he's doing the wide-cape swoop, the outline probably sells it okeh.

[nepenthes]

Probably not. For that to work he'd need to add something like below. i.e...a moustache!

[sanderling]

I think if a mostly black-clad vigilante in a mask was swooping down on me from above I would be too busy passing out in fear to notice the little bat-details.

[MajorHoy]

The fact that he often operates in the nighttime may add to the effect.

[byrd156]

Depends on the way you see him.

[Baron Mercredi]

The Bat-Signal is pretty evidently a bat, and I assume everyone knows the two are connected.

[ReverseReverseFlash]

Criminals don't think he's a giant bat, they think he's a man mad with vengeance with the branding of a bat as a mythical symbol of fear.

They get it, which is why they're afraid of him.

[KurtW95]

The Bat-Signal is pretty evidently a bat, and I assume everyone knows the two are connected.

When I was a kid, I never got the connection that the logo was a bat. I thought it looked like bad teeth. LOL

[Godlike13]

Batsh*t crazy maybe.

[Matt Murdock's Swagger]

Is he blind as a bat, have radar sense like a bat...hmmm now that's a Bat Man.

[Speed Force League Unlimited]

His cowl extensions are horns, and his cape hardly resembles batwings
Not going to make the connection

[dancj]

If you got a good look at him no, but what you get is a very quick flash of something coming towards you with a big cape (which in comic-world has a tendency to form a wing-like shape a lot) before you're knocked out.

I thought one of the fight scenes in Batman Begins showed this effect really well where the criminals never really got to see who or what was beating them up.

[Naked Bat]

I swear, I would recognize a bat if I saw one, and I just saw one entering my house a week ago, and I can tell you, Batman loos nothing like that bat. Or any other bat I've known. Granted, I ain't registered on meetic for the bats, but still, I would recognize one.

[Vakanai]

Really? I always thought the ears gave it away. And how he does that swooping Dracula thing with the cape. Then there's the Bat-logo on the chest. Honestly if that doesn't say 'I'm dressed like a bat or at least a crazy vampire thing' then I don't know what does.