How being watched changes you – without you knowing

Under scrutiny

Approaching the question from a different perspective, a group of researchers from the University of Newcastle in the UK found that watchful eyes could reduce the number of bicycles stolen. By using the university's crime database, they identified three spots on campus that suffered extremely high rates of bike theft, and installed signs at each location. The signs featured a pair of male eyes gazing outwards, along with the headline "Cycle Thieves: We Are Watching You”, the name "Operation Crackdown”, and the logo of a local police service. The signs caused an impressive 62% decrease in thefts in each of the three locations. Unfortunately, there was an equivalent increase in thefts elsewhere. While the intervention only displaced the thieves to other spots on campus, it was clear that the feeling of being watched was an effective deterrent.

Later that year, with the "Operation Crackdown" signs still up, the same researchers returned to the three experimental sites on campus to see whether the same watchful eyes would crack down on littering, despite the fact that the signs were explicitly written to discourage bike theft. To stack the odds against the experiment participants, the researchers used a rubber band to affix a flyer to the handlebars of each bike, giving them the opportunity to just drop the paper onto the ground. Half the time, the researchers pre-littered the area, which they suspected might have made people more likely to litter. After all, what's one more piece of paper? So they pitted the watchful eyes against the already littered ground. As expected, the eyes made the unwitting participants less likely to litter (compared with spots without the signs), and the pre-littered ground did not make it any more likely.

The extreme sensitivity that humans have to being watched, however, doesn't extend to our non-human cousins. Recently some of the same Newcastle University psychologists, together with primatologists from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, turned their eyes towards the chimpanzees of Zambia's Chimfunshi Wildlife Orphanage Trust. The chimpanzees were given the opportunity to take peanuts, a highly valued treat, from in front of a sign on which a pair of chimpanzee eyes were printed. Since chimpanzee society is strictly hierarchical, the researchers thought that the more subordinate individuals might be less likely to grab a snack, or they might opt for a lower-value carrot instead of a peanut. And the more dominant individuals might reach first for the peanuts closer to the watching chimp eyes in an effort to take all the food for themselves. Surprisingly, the chimps didn't care at all about the watchful eyes.

Other research has confirmed this: in another study, chimpanzees also failed to change their behaviour despite being watched by a fellow chimp. If chimpanzees carefully attended to their reputations like humans do, then the presence of a third party should make them more likely to share. That's a pattern seen in humans quite often; we're more likely to cooperate or to share with others when our reputations are on the line, and we can act more selfishly if we're not being watched.

It isn't that chimpanzees aren't aware of eyes more generally. Eye-tracking studies have shown that chimps and humans scan faces in similar ways, paying special attention first to the eyes, and then to the mouth. Chimps know when they’re under scrutiny; they just don't care.

Humans, on the other hand, care a great deal about being watched. We change our behaviour and choices without even realising. And that applies even when we’re under the gaze of a pair of eyes on a poster.

Jason G Goldman