Here's Looking At You, Kid...

[dianahsieh]

By Paul from NoodleFood,cross-posted by MetaBlog

One cliche of popular conventional ethics is, "Integrity is doing the right thing even if no one is watching". (For the record, this is quite different from the Objectivist concept of the virtue of integrity, which is more akin to "the principle of being principled".)

But in an interesting experiment, scientists have found that people are nearly 3 times more likely to be honest about paying into the "honor system" office coffee fund if there is a large photograph of a pair of eyes mounted just above the collection box, apparently looking at the payor. Presumably this taps into some subconscious element of human psychology.

http://ObjectivismOnline.com/blog/archives/001792.html

[softwareNerd]

Interesting. It's obvious that people would cheat less if they're really being watched. This experiement creates something analogous to an optical illusion.

I figure that, over many years of growing up, some people automate the rule: being watched, don't cheat. When a real observer is replaced by a photograph, one has to consciously counter the uncomfortable feeling of being watched. Rather than do so, people pay for their coffee. (Another article about this study spoke of stores that uses cardboard cut-outs of cops to deter shop-lifting.)

I do find it surprising and a bit disheartening, that so many would not pay for coffee if they aren't being watched!

[Dargormudshark]

Interseting, yet a dissapointing scientific observation.

[Myron Azov]

The same tactic was employed by the bureaucrats of Orwell’s dystopian novel 1984, who posted scowling portraits of the Supreme Leader above the caption, “Big Brother Is Watching You.”

Perhaps what worked in 1948’s mythical Oceania still works in America today.

Which is to say: perhaps Stalinist propaganda hasn't lost its edge.