But you knew this already, pt. II: Thinking you're being watched makes you act more honestly

[dianeduane]

And it makes sense, when you think about it...

In an interesting experiment a team from Newcastle University found people put nearly three times as much money into a canteen 'honesty box' when buying a drink, when they were being watched by a pair of eyes on a poster.

...The eyes it seems were more effective than a poster that featured an image of flowers and raises the possibility that people are encouraged to behave more co-operatively or pro-socially by putting up pictures of eyes.

...Although the eye pictures varied in the sex and head orientation all were chosen so that the eyes were looking directly at the observer.

And now I'm starting to wonder if pictures that aren't staring at you are stolen more frequently than ones that are.

...It's too early in the day for this kind of thing. I think I need more tea.

 

Comments

[akicif.livejournal.com]

Did you see the posters for London Transport's "Secure Beneath the Watchful Eyes" campaign? Very Orwellian....

[dduane.livejournal.com]

I saw them. They gave me the pip. (shudders)

strange experiments

[psycho-machia.livejournal.com]

it even works for cockroaches, they'll run down a tube towards a light faster if they are being watched by other cockroaches.

[carmy-w.livejournal.com]

You know that saying: "Conscience is that little voice that tells you someone may be watching"...

[wolf-moonshadow.livejournal.com]

One of the new ski lodges in Utah had to take all their trophy heads out of the guest rooms because the guests complained that they couldn’t stand the animals watching them while they slept. I wonder if they kept down the number of towels stolen?

[dduane.livejournal.com]

(chortle) We once stayed at a little hotel in St. Moritz that had a facing wall in the main stairway mounted with what seemed like hundreds of jackalope heads. Somebody's idea of a joke... But you'd be sitting there in the bar, by the fire, and you would feel on the back of your neck the gaze of all those little jackalope eyes. Staring...

It actually gave some people the creeps: some of them had to go around the corner into a little snuggy kind of space where the heads couldn't "see" them.

(They didn't bother me. I was too busy wrapping my brains around the concept that the Swiss knew what jackalopes were.)

[swestrup]

A similar experiment showed the same effect when the picture was replaced with a mirror, so that people could observe their own behaviour.

[wolf-moonshadow.livejournal.com]

(http://photobucket.com)
*Assumes deep, sonorous professorial tone* ‘The Swiss Mountain Jackalope, Jackalopus alpus, is a distant cousin of the American Jackalope, Jackalopus southwestium. The Swiss government has done an amazing job keeping the existence of the Mountain Jackalope a secret from the rest of the world, and thus very little is know about this elusive creature. Antidotal reports suggest that the Mountain Jackalope is especially suited to the harsh mountainous terrain of the Alps, where they have evolved several unique survival strategies. One of the most unusual activities of the Mountain Jackalope involves their sneaking into mountain chalets, where they will stare unswervingly at any bar patrons until said patrons become so unnerved from the intense staring that they feel the need to leave immediately. The jackalope then is able to consume the abandoned food and ale at its leisure.’

[padparadscha.livejournal.com]

So does this mean that if I break out my You-Know-Who poster that is basically a giant pair of glaring yellow eyes with slitted pupils, and put out a cashbox, I may make some extra dough?

Or do evil eyes negate the effect?

[kayshapero]

When I was in college in the early '70s, someone posted a small copy of the (then) infamous picture of Burt Reynolds in a nearly-nude cheesecake pose with an ungodly smirk on his face on the inside door of one of the stalls in the women's restroom in my dorm. Judging by the fact that there always seemed to be plenty of tp in that one, I suspect that the women I observed going into the stall, coming out again, and using one of the other two were in the majority... And yes, I did do that myself. :)