Images of eyes promote prosocial behavior
While early studies suggested that images of eyes promote prosocial behavior by triggering a sense of being watched, recent replications and broader reviews have yielded mixed findings, leading the scientific community to contest the robustness and generalizability of the effect.
The claim is an empirical psychological hypothesis ('the watching eyes effect'). While some papers (like meta-analytic work on antisocial behavior [0] or studies on gaze cues [5]) support the idea that eye cues influence behavior, several prominent studies and replication attempts [1, 4, 6] have failed to replicate the effect or found that control images (like flowers) work just as well. Because of these mixed findings, failed replications, and boundary condition debates, the balance verdict is CONTESTED.
K. Dear, Kevin Dutton, E. Fox. Do ‘watching eyes’ influence antisocial behavior? A systematic review & meta-analysis. 2019. https://doi.org/10.1016/J.EVOLHUMBEHAV.2019.01.006
A meta-analysis of 15 experiments indicates that watching eyes reduce antisocial behavior.
N. Raihani, R. Bshary. A positive effect of flowers rather than eye images in a large-scale, cross-cultural dictator game. 2012. https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2012.0758
A large-scale cross-cultural dictator game found that flower images rather than eye images promoted cooperation.
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Rogers RD, Bayliss AP, Szepietowska A, Dale L, Reeder L, Pizzamiglio G, Czarna K, Wakeley J, Cowen PJ, Tipper SP. I want to help you, but I am not sure why: gaze-cuing induces altruistic giving.. 2014. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0033677
Implicit learning about reliable gaze cues can prompt altruistic giving in economic games.
P. V. van Lange, Z. Manesi. Reputation Reminders: When do Eye Cues Promote Prosocial Behavior?. 2023. https://doi.org/10.1017/SJP.2023.4
Reviews indicate that the watching eyes effect can promote prosocial behavior under specific conditions such as reduced anonymity and low costs.
Yuta Kawamura, T. Kusumi. The norm-dependent effect of watching eyes on donation. 2017. https://doi.org/10.1016/J.EVOLHUMBEHAV.2017.05.003
A replication study failed to find that watching eyes promoted generosity regardless of existing social norms.
Rotella A, Sparks AM, Mishra S, Barclay P. No effect of 'watching eyes': An attempted replication and extension investigating individual differences.. 2021. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0255531
A pre-registered study failed to replicate the watching eyes effect and observation effect in a dictator game.
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