Does observability affect prosociality?
Bradley, Lawrence and Ferguson reviewed whether being observed makes people more prosocial, a question central to several models of cooperation on which the empirical results had been mixed. Their meta-analysis pooled a large body of studies and found a small but statistically reliable positive link between observability and prosocial behaviour. The link was stronger when a passive observer was actually present than when participants only perceived that they were watched, when decisions had real consequences, in laboratory studies, with repeated measures and in social dilemmas. The paper is about observability in general and is not a test of eye pictures.
Bradley, Lawrence and Ferguson reviewed whether being observed makes people more prosocial, a question central to several models of cooperation on which the empirical results had been mixed. Their meta-analysis pooled a large body of studies and found a small but statistically reliable positive link between observability and prosocial behaviour. The link was stronger when a passive observer was actually present than when participants only perceived that they were watched, when decisions had real consequences, in laboratory studies, with repeated measures and in social dilemmas. The paper is about observability in general and is not a test of eye pictures.
Written from the abstract, University of Portsmouth research portal.
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Bradley, A., Lawrence, C., & Ferguson, E. (2018). 'Does observability affect prosociality?' Proceedings of the Royal Society B, 285(1875), 20180116. doi:10.1098/rspb.2018.0116