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In 1785, English philosopher Jeremy Bentham created the concept of the ideal prison: cells arranged around a tower from which an invisible guard could watch each prisoner at will. For all the prisoner knows, the guard could be watching at any time—or not. Prisoners were expected to assume they were being watched at all times, and to behave accordingly. Welcome to the Panopticon.
Many of us are familiar with the feeling of being constantly watched. Information about our identities, activities, purchases, and movements is increasingly available to anonymous third parties. We are expected to share much of our lives with an online audience and, in some social groups, to update friends on our location. Millions of virtually invisible CCTV cameras and smart doorbells monitor us in public spaces, and we are aware that AI-powered facial recognition can match names to faces.
How does observation affect us? “It was one of the first topics to be explored in psychology,” says Clement Belletier, a psychologist at the University of Clermont-Auvergne in France. In 1898, psychologist Norman Triplett demonstrated that cyclists ride faster in the presence of others. Since the 1970s, research has shown how we change our behavior when we are observed, in order to manage our reputation and social consequences.
But surveillance doesn’t just change our behavior; decades of research show that it also permeates our minds, influencing how we think. And now, a new study shows how surveillance affects our brains’ unconscious processing of information. In the age of surveillance, the researchers say the findings raise concerns about our collective mental health.
Watchful eyes
When we are being watched, it attracts our attention, as demonstrated by the gaze effect in a crowd: among many faces that are not looking at us, we instantly notice the one that is. This is because gaze direction, especially eye contact, is a powerful social cue that helps us perceive others’ intentions and predict their actions.
Even as infants, direct gaze quickly captures our attention. “These tendencies emerge very early” and are present throughout the animal kingdom, says Clara Colombatto, who studies social cognition at the University of Waterloo in Ontario. This ability likely evolved to detect predators, which may explain why staring triggers psychological discomfort and physical “fight-or-flight” responses like sweating.
At a conscious level, we behave differently when we are being watched. We become more prosocial, meaning more willing to help, and less likely to cheat or litter. Some studies even suggest that stealing or littering can be reduced simply by posting images of eyes. This idea has led to the idea that surveillance can be used for the public good – to prevent crime, for example – echoing Bentham’s methods of controlling prisoners.
The fact that people behave differently under scrutiny is not surprising. Who among us has not acted more selfishly when alone than when others could see us? Psychologists explain this by concern for one's reputation.
But over the past few decades, researchers have discovered that staring also affects cognitive functions like memory and attention. For one thing, it can be very distracting. One study found that participants performed worse on a working memory task when they were shown images of people looking at them, compared to those shown images of people with their eyes averted. The researchers concluded that direct gaze captures participants’ attention and diverts their attentional resources from the task at hand. Other studies have found that a variety of functions, from spatial perception to language abilities, are also taxed by staring.
Unconscious effects
The impact of observation on cognition goes even deeper, into our brains’ unconscious processing of the world around us. In a study published last December, scientists demonstrated that observation
Sourse: www.livescience.com
