Assembling Reminders

You are driving ever so slightly above the speed limit.

You see a police car in your rearview mirror.

You slow down.

You know perfectly well that it's wrong to exceed the speed limit whether anyone is watching or not.

But being human, the likelihood of being found out and penalized makes a difference.

Recently, a series of experiments has been conducted by psychologists to test the impact of a sense

of being watched being observed on pro-social behavior. Chembo-Jean, Vanessa Bonds and Francesca Gino

constructed a test to see whether a feeling of anonymity made a difference.

They randomly assigned to a group of students either sunglasses or clear eyeglasses,

telling them that they were testing reactions to a new product line.

They were also in a completely unrelated task, apparently, given telling them that they were testing reactions to a new product line.

They were also in a completely unrelated task, apparently,

given $6 and a chance of sharing any of it with a stranger.

Those wearing clear glasses gave on average $2.71,

while those wearing dark sunglasses gave an average of $1.81. The mere fact of wearing sunglasses and thus feeling unrecognized and unrecognizable reduced generosity. In another experiment,

they found that students given the opportunity to cheat in a test were more likely to do so

if the room was dimly lit rather than if it were brightly lit.

The more we think we may be observed, the more generous and moral we become.

Kevin Haley and Dan Fessler tested students on the so-called dictator game, in which you were given, say, $10 together with the opportunity of sharing any or none of it with an anonymous stranger.

Beforehand, and without realizing it was part of the experiment, some of the students were briefly shown a pair of eyes as a computer screensaver

while others saw a different image. Those exposed to the eyes gave 55% more to the stranger

...