No effect of watching eyes: An attempted replication and extension investigating individual differences
Rotella and colleagues ran a preregistered attempt to replicate the watching eyes effect and the wider effect of being observed. Participants played a dictator game in which decisions were made in public or in private, and some decisions were made with eye images present. The authors also measured how observed participants felt and whether individual prosociality changed the effects. Participants did not give more when decisions were public or when eye images were present, although they said they felt more observed in the public condition. An exploratory model, which the authors describe as underpowered, hinted that less prosocial participants gave less in private than prosocial ones but not in public.
Rotella and colleagues ran a preregistered attempt to replicate the watching eyes effect and the wider effect of being observed. Participants played a dictator game in which decisions were made in public or in private, and some decisions were made with eye images present. The authors also measured how observed participants felt and whether individual prosociality changed the effects. Participants did not give more when decisions were public or when eye images were present, although they said they felt more observed in the public condition. An exploratory model, which the authors describe as underpowered, hinted that less prosocial participants gave less in private than prosocial ones but not in public.
Written from the abstract, Northumbria University research portal.
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Rotella, A., Sparks, A. M., Mishra, S., & Barclay, P. (2021). No effect of watching eyes: An attempted replication and extension investigating individual differences. PLoS ONE, 16(10), e0255531. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0255531