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'Big Brother' Eyes Make Us Act More Honestly

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the to-say-nothing-of-big-brother's-fists dept.

dylanduck quotes a NewScientist.com article that says "We all know the scene: the coffee room with the 'honesty box' where you pay for your drinks — or not, because no one is watching. But researchers have discovered that merely a picture of watching eyes trebled the amount of money paid." That's a pretty deep-rooted fear of getting caught, which could be useful for crime prevention perhaps. But whose eyes?"

7 of 399 comments (clear)

  1. wow. by professorhojo · · Score: 4, Interesting

    straight out of 1984.

    if you're not doing anything wrong, why should you mind being watched?

  2. Monitored Transactions by eldavojohn · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I'm not surprised by this at all.

    I once was very good friends with a card shop owner. In the back two corners of his store, he had two very huge obtrusive obnoxious surveillance cameras angled into the store. I had been in the back of the store to play cards with him every now and then and had never seen any television sets. So I asked him one day where the feeds went on his cameras so that he could catch people shoplifting. He just laughed and told me that the feeds didn't need to go anywhere. And if I looked closer, those cameras were fake.

    I would suspect that anything symbolizing or triggering our mind to think of surveillance would cause us to be more honest. It would be interesting to instead of eyes use pictures of surveillance cameras pointed at the coffee. Or, perhaps simply the words, "We are watching you!" I mean, it's only natural for us to react to what we see.

    --
    My work here is dung.
    1. Re:Monitored Transactions by dr_dank · · Score: 5, Interesting

      I never thought the fake cameras were a good idea. A jewelery store owner not too far from where I grew up was held up/burgled several times over a period of about ten years. After the first time or two, he installed a couple of those fake cameras as a deterrent. When he got held up for real, he had to convince the angry man with the finger on the trigger of the gun pointed at his head that the cameras were fake and there weren't any tapes to hand over. If the robber didn't buy it, who knows what would have happened.

      --
      Where does the school board find them and why do they keep sending them to ME?
  3. Panopticon by alnya · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Kind of a similar theory presented in the Panopticon (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panopticon)

    The illusion of surveillance is as powerful as surveillance itself.

  4. Replacing God by ttys00 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    This is one thing that the concept of God used to be used for - the all seeing eye that made some people act (somewhat) honestly. Now that religion is on the wane in parts of the world, a replacement all seeing eye will be needed to keep the same class of people in line.

  5. Re:Humanizing the Coffee Fund by Yvanhoe · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Now I'd like to see the efficiency of feminine smiling eyes vs male concerned eyes.

    BTW, interesting mental manipulation experiment

    --
    The Wise adapts himself to the world. The Fool adapts the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the Fool.
  6. Well, consider the history by MikeRT · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Since Big Brotheresque things are associated with arbitrary abuse by seemingly unaccountable authorities who are also unaccountable if they retaliate later, people get afraid. How many human resources departments have written a person up for saying something that got taken the wrong way by a thin-skinned person? Look at how shop-lifting by young teens is treated. Do it 25 years ago and it's a sound whack on the wrist. Today, it ruins your future no matter if you go into the army and become a decorated war hero serving on the front lines.

    And the GOVERNMENT side of Big Brother has left more "little brothers" dead than all religious organizations and private corporations combined.

    So yeah, it doesn't a rocket scientists to figure out why in the modern world Big Brother is considered scary. In fact, I would consider it a form of psychotic detatchment from reality to be comfortable with him.