Concept
Watched Eyes Effect
trust social-norms prosocial-behavior
Images of eyes looking directly at the viewer make people behave more pro-socially and honestly, even when they know rationally that a photograph isn't actually watching them — plausibly by unconsciously triggering the same social pressure as genuinely being observed. First demonstrated by Melissa Bateson in 2006: contributions to an honesty-based university coffee fund rose nearly threefold on weeks a pair of watching eyes was displayed nearby, compared to weeks a picture of flowers was displayed instead (see Bateson Coffee Fund Watched-Eyes Study). The effect has since been tested (with mixed replication success) in littering, bike theft, and expense-reporting honesty.
Elizabeth Holmes's Theranos leaned heavily on striking, direct-to-camera photography of employees and customers across its website, billboards, and office signage — imagery closely resembling the watched-eyes stimulus, plausibly deployed (knowingly or not) to project trustworthiness the company's actual product didn't earn (see Theranos Website Labour-Illusion Case).
Discussed in
- Episode 135 — 135-elizabeth-holmes-how-she-deceived-the-world-part-two