The watching eyes phenomenon: The role of a sense of being seen and public self‐awareness

Pfattheicher, Stefan; Keller, Johannes

doi:10.1002/ejsp.2122

Cited by 99 publications

(96 citation statements)

References 32 publications

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“…Most sociologists should feel at home with real-world displays of the process that leads to socially desirable behavior (i.e., self-awareness of being observed) because, thus far, we have described the psychosocial mechanisms behind deterrence theory (Jervis 1989;Tibbetts 2013; for more recent explorations of moderators of being observed and socially desirable behavior, see Pfattheicher 2015;Pfattheicher and Keller 2015). Knowing with sufficient certainty that our behavior is being observed or judged affects social cognitive processes that make us comply with codes of desirable behavior.…”

Section: Theoretical Frameworkmentioning

confidence: 99%

Paradoxical effects of self-awareness of being observed: testing the effect of police body-worn cameras on assaults and aggression against officers

et al. 2017

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Objectives Recently, scholars have applied self-awareness theory to explain why bodyworn cameras (BWCs) affect encounters between the public and police, with its most immediate manifestation being a reduction in the use of force by and complaints against police. In this study, we report on the paradoxical effects of BWCs in the context of assaults on officers. Methods A multisite randomized controlled trial in ten departments, with officers wearing (or not wearing) BWCs based on random assignment of shifts. Odds ratios are used to estimate the treatment effect on assaults, along with Bone study removedŝ ensitivity analyses. Further subgroup analyses are performed in terms of varying degrees of officers' discretion, to enhance the practical applications of this multisite experiment. Finally, before-analyses are applied as well, control shifts (M = 28.38; SD = 15.99), which translate into 37% higher odds of assault in treatment shifts than in control conditions. The perverse direction and relative magnitude in each experimental site in eight out of ten sites were consistent. The backfiring treatment effect was substantially more pronounced in low discretion sites, i.e., where officers strongly followed the experimental protocol (OR = 2.565; 95% CI 1.792, 3.672). At the same time, before-after analyses show that assaults were overall reduced by 61% in the participating police departments, thus suggesting paradoxical effects.Conclusions We explain these findings using self-awareness theory. Once self-aware that their performance is being observed by BWCs, officers become at risk of being assaulted. Results suggest that under some circumstances, self-awareness can lead to excessive self-inspection that strips power-holders of their ability to function under extreme situations. This mechanism is potentially a function of Bover-deterrence^. The study further demonstrates the benefits of applying psychosocial theories to the study of social control and deterrence theories more broadly, with a robust and falsifiable mechanism that explains the conditions under which being observed stimulates either appropriate or perverse consequences.

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Section: Theoretical Frameworkmentioning

confidence: 99%

Paradoxical effects of self-awareness of being observed: testing the effect of police body-worn cameras on assaults and aggression against officers

et al. 2017

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“…While a number of previous studies have demonstrated that the effect of eyes is moderated by contextual factors such as crowd density [8,11,25], studies that take into account differences in participants' stable traits remain scarce (but see, for example, [7] for moderation effects of gender, and [26] for the moderating effect of chronic public self-awareness). Hence, a third aim of this paper is to investigate whether social value orientation (SVO), a stable trait reflecting one's intrinsic willingness to cooperate [27][28][29][30], moderates the effect of eye cues on cooperative choices.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Watching Eyes and Living up to Expectations: Unkind, Not Kind, Eyes Increase First Mover Cooperation in a Sequential Prisoner’s Dilemma

Pauwels

Declerck

Boone

2017

Games

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(1) Background: Why and when images of watching eyes encourage prosocial behavior is still subject to discussion, and two recent meta-analyses show no effect of watching eyes on generosity. This study aims to discern the effect of watching eyes of different valence on two separate aspects of prosocial behavior, and additionally investigates whether individuals' social value orientation moderates the effect of eyes. (2) Methods: Individuals take on the role of either a first or second mover in an incentivized, anonymous sequential prisoner's dilemma (n = 247), a two-person game which separates the need to form expectations about the other player (first mover cooperation, trust) from the motive of greed (second mover cooperation, reciprocity). During decision-making, a picture of either kind eyes, unkind eyes, or a control picture is presented above each decision matrix. (3) Results: The results indicate that unkind eyes, and not kind eyes, significantly boost first mover cooperation. In contrast, neither type of eye cues increase second mover cooperation. Social value orientation does not moderate these effects. (4) Conclusions: Thus, the data suggest that the valence of eye cues matters, and we propose that unkind eyes urge first movers to live up to the interaction partner's expectations.

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“…Although there are also some studies that could not find such evidence. A review on the topic can be found at [20,21]. A possible reason for the failure of previous studies in eyes cue influence is proposed in [21], where the authors found that people with weak public self-awareness, i.e.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A review on the topic can be found at [20,21]. A possible reason for the failure of previous studies in eyes cue influence is proposed in [21], where the authors found that people with weak public self-awareness, i.e. people not concerned about how they appear in the eyes of others, are not affected by the watching eyes phenomena.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evolution of cooperation under social pressure in multiplex networks

Pereda

2016

Phys. Rev. E

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In this work, we aim to contribute to the understanding of the human pro-social behavior by studying the influence that a particular form of social pressure "being watched" has on the evolution of cooperative behavior. We study how cooperation emerge in multiplex complex topologies by analyzing a particular bidirectionallycoupled dynamics on top of a two-layers multiplex network (duplex). The coupled dynamics appears between the Prisoner's Dilemma game in a network, and a threshold cascade model in the other. The threshold model is intended to abstract the behavior of a network of vigilant nodes, that impose pressure of being observed altering hence the temptation to defect of the dilemma. Cooperation or defection in the game also affects the state of a node of being vigilant. We analyze these processes on different duplex networks structures and assess the influence of the topology, average degree and correlated multiplexity, on the outcome of cooperation. Interestingly, we find that the social pressure of vigilance may impact cooperation positively or negatively, depending on the duplex structure, specifically the degree correlations between layers is determinant. Our results give further quantitative insights in the promotion of cooperation under social pressure.

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The watching eyes phenomenon: The role of a sense of being seen and public self‐awareness

Cited by 99 publications

References 32 publications

Paradoxical effects of self-awareness of being observed: testing the effect of police body-worn cameras on assaults and aggression against officers

Paradoxical effects of self-awareness of being observed: testing the effect of police body-worn cameras on assaults and aggression against officers

Watching Eyes and Living up to Expectations: Unkind, Not Kind, Eyes Increase First Mover Cooperation in a Sequential Prisoner’s Dilemma

Evolution of cooperation under social pressure in multiplex networks

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