People more honest when they think they're being watched, scientists find

[IDemo]

Jun 28 2006

Sam Burson, Western Mail

SCIENTISTS claim to have found a way of making people behave more honestly in an experiment they say could have a knock-on effect on everyday life.

A university team found people put nearly three times as much money into an honesty box when they could see a pair of eyes on a poster, compared with an image of flowers.

Researchers say the eye pictures were probably influential because the brain naturally reacts to images of faces and eyes, making people subconsciously co-operate with the honesty box system.

They also say the findings show how people behave differently when they believe they are being watched because they are worried what others will think of them.

http://tinyurl.com/mbbuv

[Tracer]

1. And someone PAID for this "study"?

Duh.

[0007]

2. Brilliant fucking brilliant!!

[shadowknows69]

3. I swear someone is using "1984" as a "how-to" manual.

"Fascism for dummies?"

[BanzaiBonnie]

4. As a child I was taught

that God sees everything. If people really believed this, it seems they would behave better.

I personally believe everything we do is recorded in time.

[JDPriestly]

5. At the very least, we record everything we do in our own

consciousness. And when we do something we know is wrong, that wrong becomes a part of us. It is there in everything we do, think say and feel after that wrong. And we express it in everything we do, say think and feel after the wrong. And our own known ledge of our wrong weakens us.

The worst is when we do something we think is right, and it turns out to have been wrong. That is the worst.