People Watching. I’m pretty sure it can be classed as a recreational hobby. As a psychologist is training, I can’t help but have a cheeky gander around at people in there natural environment, who can’t? Well this fits in snuggly with the process of naturalistic obeservation which is a technique that involves observing subjects in their natural environment. This type of research is often utilized in situations where conducting lab research is unrealistic or could alter the subjects behaviour. Think about it, for an easy example when you are walking along and you smile at someone there instinction is to smile back as well, maybe with a feeling of slight discomfort but a smile nonetheless. Now throw in gender differences and you’ve got yourself an experiment in waiting!
In the psychology department at Newcastle University, there is a coffee station where people can help themselves, so long as they leave money in the tray — 50 pence for a coffee and 30 for tea. It operates on an honor system. Although apparently not everyone is very honourable and the level of contributions is quite low. It was presumed that people if are more honest if they know they’re being observed — so when nobody’s watching, they feel they can get away with, well..a free cup of coffee in this case.
A few psychologists of the university decided to carry out an experiment. For 10 weeks this spring, they alternately taped two posters over the coffee station. During one week, it was a picture of flowers; during the other, it was a pair of staring eyes. Then they sat back to watch what would happen. They found that the weeks when the eyes poster stared down at the coffee machine, people contributed 2.76 times as much money as in the weeks the flowers were on the wall. The apparent feelings of being watched seemed to make people behave more honestly.
An application to this study was that after the paper was published, the police department in Birmingham placed posters around the city of eyes watching people as a possible way to reduce crimes such as vandalism and car theft. At the end of the day, watching people is a great way to make a study although determining on the the aim, if a person changes their behaviour if they think they are being watched this could be classed as a disadvantage. To sum this up in the mental image of 1984, big brother is watching you.
ohhaiblog 
#1 by psuc6b on February 7, 2012 - 3:05 pm
I would definitely expect people to profit from a free up of tea/coffee and I think I personally would as well! However, if everyone is honest about giving a few coins, then the system would probably be more benifical for all (I’d rather pay 30p rather than £2 for a hot drink!). Being watched definitely makes people more couscious about their actions. And I agree that if creating an atmosphere of being watched can reduce crime rate, then it is a pretty clever trick and should be used. However, I do also feel it is necessary to take into account those who suffer from social phobias and who find it hard stepping out of the house, never mind having extra eyes starring at them.
The presence of others can be very uncomfortable and nerve-racking: numerous studies including one by Soifer( http://books.google.co.uk/books?hl=en&lr=&id=THKq9mT-7toC&oi=fnd&pg=PR7&dq=harder+to+urinate+in+presence+of+others&ots=anmtaJl48a&sig=DXVIXWl9xhzvUIn5rNXufSOSV6k#v=onepage&q&f=false) showed that people take longer to urinate when in presence of others. (http://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/bhcv2/bhcarticles.nsf/pages/Paruresis_shy_bladder_syndrome?open)
Other social phobias due to the fear of being judged (heard/seen) include selective mutism and Jikoshu-kyofu (phobia of making eye contact). These phobias are serious and challenge some individuals’ everyday life style. So maybe the stress that posing eyes all other the place could cause (potentially leading to paranoia) should be taken into account before generalising this approach in public places.
#2 by psuc6b on February 8, 2012 - 1:22 pm
Hey, I thought I left a comment on here but it doesn’t seem to appear on your blog.. could you possibly check if there is any comment from me awaiting moderation( asking for you to approve it)?? Thanks
#3 by re3ecca on February 8, 2012 - 6:57 pm
This blog highlights an important issue of the effects of overt and covert observation. There have been many studies to suggest that people alter their behaviour when they know they are being watched (look at all the examples in our social psychology module!) or even in the implied presence of others (as the study you mentioned suggests). This means that covert observations (where people don’t know they are being watched) potentially have higher ecological validity. However there are also ethical implications of covert observation. It’s true that often covert observation allows us to analyze more natural behaviour, but there is a difference between people watching someone from a cafe and secretly watching people’s behaviour for psychological research and recording their behaviour. Potentially people could be distressed if they knew they were being observed and that creates ethical issues. For this reason it’s definitely an important issue to bring to attention amongst psychologists!
#4 by saspb on February 10, 2012 - 11:38 am
Hey ! This blog really made for a good read. I can completely agree with you on the general people watching front and a psychologist it’s becoming more and more natural. I fear that someday i will be questioned as to my reason for staring haha. Anyway, the blog really nicely highlights the complications surrounding the observation method. Youve also used some lovely clear examples showing us how this applies to the real world around us on a daily basis.
With this topic in mind i found this piece of research really interesting too: http://epiphenom.fieldofscience.com/2011/07/we-condemn-more-when-we-think-were.html
basically, psychologists at the University of Sydney found that not only are people directly more moral when being ‘watched’ (subtle or not) they also found within an experiment that people are also more judgemental when being presented with subtle hints such as staring eyes. The volunteers (recruited from the Campus Universitaire de Jussieu in Paris) had to read a short story of a minor misdeed E.g. finding a wallet in the street and keeping the money inside it or falsifying a CV – and then judge how morally wrong it was.The twist was that half the participants had a picture of flowers on the paper the story appeared on, and the other half had a small picture of a set of staring eyes. findings suggested that “It seems that when we feel we’re being watched, we’re more likely to say that we’re condemning others.” interesting no?
Thanks 🙂
#5 by PSUD00 on February 10, 2012 - 9:03 pm
I found your blog very interesting. I knew that when there is someone watching you, you are more likely to act in a way you believe they want you to. However, I didn’t know that this still applied when you only felt someone was watching you like your example of the pictures of staring eyes increasing the amount people contributed for a cup of tea. Maybe this could be an answer to the problems people have with security cameras. The “Big Brother” effect has come about in recent years due to the increase of CCTV and refers to the fact all our lives are in a way documented by these cameras. People feel that it is unethical for us to be using CCTV as it does nothing to prevent or reduce crime. (http://hci2msd.blogspot.com/2006/02/ethics-big-brother-is-watching-you.html). Also many people see it as an invasion of privacy as these cameras record us without our knowledge everyday. Many people have admitted that they use personal security cameras for “watching out for ladies” and “keeping an eye on the neighbours” which many people see as wrong and unethical. (http://www.prnewswire.co.uk/cgi/news/release?id=110755). With this effect of people acting in a more lawful manner just because they feel like they are being watched this could reduce our reliance on CCTV and therefore people may feel less like we are living in the world of Big Brother. This itself may bring about a few issues though as people may argue that it is still unethical to make people feel like they are being watched without their consent.
#6 by thandiresearchskillz on February 13, 2012 - 10:52 am
Please may you check your comment moderation settings as there are comments that are not showing up. See blackboard for detailed instructions on how to make sure comments show up.
Thanks,
Thandi