The

Mechanism Of The Watching Eyes Effect In

Promoting Prosocial Behavior

Hao Huang | hhuang21@masonlive.gmu.edu
College Of Humanities And Social Sciences | George Mason University

RESEARCH QUESTION
What is the mechanism of the Watching Eyes Effect (WEE) in promoting prosocial behavior? I will start
building a model to explain it from the existed researches related on the application and limits of WEE.

INTRODUCTION
The increasing population movement makes us meet strangers frequently that brings some problems in
getting along with others. Researchers found that simple eyes images can promote prosocial behavior,
which they call watching eyes effect. (Haley and Fessler, 2005) Other researchers followed their research
both in laboratory and real world and tried to explain it by different concepts such as reputation,
reciprocity and norm. However, they dont reach a consensus, and the incomplete comprehending of
WEE limits its extending in real world. I review the existed researches to figure out the most supported
theory about the mechanism of WEE and organize the researches on application and limits, helping
future researches to build appropriate models applied in real world.

Figure 2 WEE in experiment design (Sparks, A., & Barclay, P., 2013)
In the laboratory, researchers design such different background on the screen which causes different
influence on participants. The top two pictures show that the participants in control group will do some
task with the default desktop, an indifferent image (grass and sky), while the experimental group do the
task with the image of a pair of eyes. This kind of design is widely used in the WEE research and most of
them get the significant results in. Figure 3 My Explanation Model of WEE

THE APPLICATION AND LIMITS OF WEE. FURTHER DISCUSSION

For most experiments in existed researches, they get supported results from general prosocial behaviors.
There are several ways of using the WEE. Nettle, Nott and Bateson (2012) pay attention on the effects on
They support the most parts of my model above. But as I suppose, the specific prosocial behaviors may
thieves, their research find that the images of eyes can protect the bicycles from being stolen that
be promoted only the related reputation concepts are provoked, which showed in the advanced part of
parking nearby. The cues of being watched can also increase peoples contribution in protecting
my model. Sparks and Barclays (2013) result supports my suppose, because the difference between long
environment. (Francey & Bergmller, 2012) They run research in a bus station and find that under the
Figure 1 WEE in preventing thieves (Nettle, D., Nott, K., & Bateson, M. , 2012) exposure and short exposure means that there are two levels in the process: one is basic unawareness
cues people are more likely to help throwing the litter. Nevertheless, in a field experiment in restaurant,
The image of watching eyes reduced the bicycle thefts at the experimental locations in the Newcastle mechanism that reacts in general situations, the other is advanced awareness mechanism that reacts
cooperative behaviors can also be raised up by cues of watching. (Ernest-Jones, Nettle, & Bateson, 2011)
University. differently in specific situations. To talk more about the two levels briefly, more researches on different
specific reputations are needed in the future. For example, we should separate the different prosocial
However, there are some limits in using the watching eyes effect in some situation. Fehr and Schneider
behaviors by designing different tasks, and compare them in different independent variables. The eyes
(2010) design an experiment which distinguish the implicit and explicit cues of being watched and find
images may promote peoples honesty if they are going to take a test but will not improve their donating
that the power under implicit cues is much lower than explicit cues in some pecuniary conditions. And
WHY FOCUSES ON PRO-SOCIAL BEHAVIOR? the exposure time of watching eyes also influences the effect. Sparks and Barclay (2013) regard those
behaviors. Those researches can demonstrate the two-level model I suppose which consists with the
existed WEE researches. Whats more, the future results of this topic can help us to understand the
eyes images as false cues, and their result argues that long exposure of false cue will have less effect due
Nowadays with the development of communication tools, the chance of contacting with others becomes human decision-making process better, promote the global collaboration and reduce crimes.
to the habituation.
more often, because the width of the social circles has been expanded. People have to meet much more
people especially the strangers because of work and trade, in which the fraud and other crimes come Comparing the existed researches, we can find some similarities of them. Most researches agree with
into a problem. For example, the burgeoning C2C (customer to customer) website makes it possible for us the idea that the watching eyes effect is connected to the reputation, and they connect the reputation REFERENCES:
to buy rare collections from others but the internet fraud increases at the same time; the P2P sharing with reciprocity. (Haley & Fessler, 2005; Hietanen et al., 2008; Oda et al., 2011) They regard the eyes Bourrat, P., Baumard, N., & McKay, R. (2011). Surveillance cues enhance moral condemnation.
services like UBER bring us easier traffic way but we start reading some offensive news between drivers images as the cues to provoke the awareness of reputation, and the eyes images become the third-party Evolutionary Psychology, 9(2), 147470491100900200.
and passengers. To help keeping a harmonious society, governments run the police system and use the observer which reminds people to perform more prosocial, and prevent people from being antisocial. Ernest-Jones, M., Nettle, D., & Bateson, M. (2011). Effects of eye images on everyday cooperative
Closed-Circuit Television to monitor population which can reduce the crime and prevent the anti-social However, the watching eyes effect will eliminate after long time exposure, (Sparks and Barclay, 2013) behavior: a field experiment. Evolution and Human Behavior, 32(3), 172178.
behaviors. However, those methods cost large amounts of money. At the same time, nowadays we which means that it is an automatic mechanism, suggesting that the watching eyes effect is caused by a https://doi.org/10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2010.10.006
human beings face some global problems that we need to solve together, such as financial crisis, climate basic mental mechanism that can be revised. Whats more, for those explicit interaction relationships Fehr, E., & Schneider, F. (2010). Eyes are on us, but nobody cares: are eye cues relevant for strong
change and over-exploitation of natural resources, and the mechanism of individual decision can increase such as pair interaction, because of the explicit reciprocity, the third-party observer has less effects in reciprocity? Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 277(1686), 13151323.
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I add another part of reputation in my explanation model that can contain those adverse ideas. Before
Hietanen, J. K., Leppnen, J. M., Peltola, M. J., Linna-aho, K., & Ruuhiala, H. J. (2008). Seeing direct and
Haley and Fessler (2005) find that in laboratory, subtle cues affect generosity in an anonymous our action, if needed, we will have another advanced process that we think of who we want to show our
averted gaze activates the approachavoidance motivational brain systems. Neuropsychologia, 46(9),
economic game. They put some images of eyes on the screen, and it will increase the money they reputation to and which part of our reputation we want to show. I divide the reputation in two aspects,
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intend to share with others in an economic game. Some researchers find the same results in laboratory one is about reciprocity, the other is about moral normality. So the first decision of the model is that we
Nettle, D., Nott, K., & Bateson, M. (2012). Cycle Thieves, We Are Watching You: Impact of a Simple
and figure out that the watching eyes causes the expectation of a good reputation.(Hietanen et al., 2008; want reciprocity or moral normality, then people will follow the general level of the mechanism. For
Signage Intervention against Bicycle Theft. PLoS ONE, 7(12), e51738.
Oda et al., 2011) However, some other researchers hold a different idea that watching eyes cause the those explicit reciprocity relationship, we just need show the reputation connected to reciprocity, that
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0051738
moral norm in mental level which promotes prosocial behaviors.(Bourrat et al., 2011; Nettle et al., 2013) result in improving their reciprocal prosocial behaviors, and the watching eyes effect will not influence
Oda, R., Niwa, Y., Honma, A., & Hiraishi, K. (2011). An eye-like painting enhances the expectation of a
There is not a model to perfectly describe the WEE right now because some studies did not find the the irrespective behaviors, like protecting environment. And this model can also explain why long
good reputation. Evolution and Human Behavior, 32(3), 166171.
WEE in some situation. exposure of eyes images may loss the effect, because the long exposure gives people enough time to
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2010.11.002
think of the advanced process so that people will realize which kind of reputation they want to improve
Sparks, A., & Barclay, P. (2013). Eye images increase generosity, but not for long: the limited effect of a
through their behaviors.
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https://doi.org/10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2013.05.001