People behave better when they're being watched
Scientists say people behave themselves more if they are being watched… even by a photograph of staring eyes.
Boffins put up two posters in a cafe telling people to tidy up after themselves, one with a picture of flowers, the other with staring eyes.
The team from Newcastle University then monitored behaviour and measured the impact each had.
It was found the presence of the staring eyes caused twice as many people to clean up as the floral posters.
In other news, students at Newcastle University noticed a lot of eye posters telling them to get on with their dissertations.
Dr Bateson, who led the research, said: "These findings reinforce the conclusion from our previous research, that the presence of eye images can encourage co-operative behaviour.
"We think that the images of eyes work by making people feel watched. We care what other people think about us, and hence we behave better when we feel we are being observed.
"We found that the impact of the posters was a lot greater at times when the cafe was quiet."
Boffins put up two posters in a cafe telling people to tidy up after themselves, one with a picture of flowers, the other with staring eyes.
The team from Newcastle University then monitored behaviour and measured the impact each had.
It was found the presence of the staring eyes caused twice as many people to clean up as the floral posters.
In other news, students at Newcastle University noticed a lot of eye posters telling them to get on with their dissertations.
Dr Bateson, who led the research, said: "These findings reinforce the conclusion from our previous research, that the presence of eye images can encourage co-operative behaviour.
"We think that the images of eyes work by making people feel watched. We care what other people think about us, and hence we behave better when we feel we are being observed.
"We found that the impact of the posters was a lot greater at times when the cafe was quiet."