People’s behavior undergoes a drastic change when they know that somebody is keeping an eye on them. Even a picture of an eye is enough to do the trick, as scientists have proved.
A research team from Newcastle University conducted an experiment hanging up two different posters in a café. The posters told the customers to clear up their tables before they leave. One poster showed some flowers, while the other had a pair of staring eyes.
When the boffins compared the results it turned out that twice the number of people complied with the request on the poster depicting eyes as compared to those who read the writing on the poster with flowers.
This experiment confirmed the findings of the team’s previous research aiming to show that people are more cooperative in the presence of images of staring eyes.
“We care what other people think about us, and hence we behave better when we feel we are being observed,” said lead researcher Dr. Bateson commenting on the new experiment that proves that an eye image also works in this case.
Also the eye poster has been found to have made a stronger impact during the periods when it was quiet in the café.
Now there are posters all over Newcastle University reminding the students to hand in their dissertations, all bearing pictures of staring eyes.
Source of the image: Photl.
