Research papers, July 2021
Power, competitiveness, and advice taking: Why the powerful don’t listen, by L. Tost, F. Gino & R. Larrick, 2011
Abstract: Four experiments test the prediction that feelings of power lead individuals to discount advice received from both experts and novices. Theoretical and practical contributions are discussed.
Cues of being watched enhance cooperation in a real-world setting, by M. Bateson, D. Nettle & G. Roberts, 2006
Abstract: We examined the effect of an image of a pair of eyes on contributions to an honesty box used to collect money for drinks in a university coffee room. People paid nearly 3x as much for their drinks when eyes were displayed rather than a control image. This finding provides the first evidence from a naturalistic setting of the importance of cues of being watched, and hence reputational concerns, on human cooperative behavior.
[highlights]
People tend to be generous, even toward unrelated individuals (Fehr & Fischbacher 2003). This is true even in situations where there is no prospect of repeat interaction, and hence no potential for direct reciprocity (Gintis et al. 2003). A possible mechanism maintaining generosity, where direct reciprocity is absent, is the motivation to maintain a pro-social reputation.
Laboratory experiments have shown that people increase their levels of cooperation when they know their behavior is being observed by others, and also use reputational information in deciding how to interact with others.
Our results show that an image of a pair of eyes appearing to observe behavior dramatically increases contribution to a public good in a real-world context where participants were behaving naturally and using their own money.
We believe that images of eyes motivate cooperative behavior because they induce a perception in participants of being watched. Although participants were not actually observed in either of our experimental conditions, the human perceptual system contains neurons that respond selectively to
stimuli involving faces and eyes (Emery 2000; Haxby et al. 2000), and it is therefore possible that the images exerted an automatic and unconscious effect on the participants’ perception that they were being watched.
Our results therefore support the hypothesis that reputational concerns may be extremely powerful in motivating cooperative behavior.
A simpler explanation is simply that humans are strongly attuned to cues that generally indicate reputational consequences of behaviour.
