眼睛让人更诚实

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Honesty may well be the best policy,but it often deserts us when no one is watching,psychologists report today. Experiments with an honesty box to collect payments for hot drinks reveal that people are better at paying up when under the watchful gaze of a pair of eyes. The surprise was that the eyes were not real,but photographed. The finding,which researchers believe sheds light on our evolutionary past,could be turned to practical use. The psychologists say images of beady eyes could boost ticket sales on public transport and improve surveillance systems to deter antisocial behaviour.

Researchers at Newcastle University set up the experiment in secret,so colleagues in their department would not change their behaviour. They attached a poster to a cupboard of mugs above an honesty box alongside a kettle,with tea,coffee and milk. Over 10 weeks,they alternated each week between images of eyes and pictures of flowers.

“We put the poster in a position that you couldn’t fail to see it as you were getting a mug,”said Melissa Bateson,a behavioural biologist and leader of the study. At the end of each week Dr Bateson totted up the money in the honesty box and the amount of milk used―an indicator of the number drinks consumed. The money shot up every week the poster showed a pair of eyes.

Dr Bateson said that even though the eyes were not real they still seemed to make people behave more honestly. The effect may arise from behavioural traits that developed as early humans formed social groups that bolstered their chances of survival. For social groups to work individuals had to co-operate for the good of the group, rather than act selfishly.

“There’s an argument that if nobody is watching us it is in our interests to behave selfishly. But when we think we’re being watched we should behave better,so people see us as co-operative and behave the same way towards us,”Dr Bateson said.

People paid between 10p and 30p a litre of milk when pictures of flowers were put above the honesty box. When the eyes were used the payments went up to nearly 70p a litre. People paid more if the eyes were those of a male. “We thought we’d get a subtle effect with eyes,but it was really quite striking how much difference they made. Even at a subconscious level,it seems people respond to eyes,and that might be because eyes and faces send a strong biological signal we have evolved to respond to.”

The scientists say companies and governments could tap into our evolved response to a person’s gaze to improve honesty. “It raises interesting questions about how we might improve systems to reduce antisocial behaviour and things like making people pay up on public transport. Signs that say ‘CCTV cameras in operation’ should, perhaps,be accompanied by a pair of eyes instead of a picture of a camera. We’ve not evolved to pay much attention to cameras,”said Dr Bateson.

实可能是我们做人处事的上策，但是它在无人监督时通常会遗弃我们，心理学家今日报告说。用一只检验人们是否诚实的盒子收取热饮费的实验表明，当被一双眼睛警惕地注视时，人们会更自觉地付清全部费用。令人惊讶的是，那双眼睛并不是真的，而是一张图像。这一发现――研究者认为有助于说明我们的进化历程――可能被转化到实际应用中。心理学家说，像珠子般雪亮的眼睛图像能够提高公共交通的车票销售额，改善监视系统以阻止行为。

纽卡斯尔大学的研究者们秘密地开展了这个实验，因此他们所在部门的同事不会因此改变自己的行为。他们将一份海报张贴在"诚实盒"上方摆满杯子的碗橱上，盒子旁边摆放着一只壶，还放有茶、咖啡和牛奶。在10多个周的实验期内，他们在各周间交替使用眼睛图像和花卉图片。

“我们把海报放在一个醒目的位置，当你拿杯子时，你不可能看不到。”梅利莎・贝特森说，她是行为生物学家和此次研究的负责人。在每周结束时，贝特森博士都会合计诚实盒中的钱数以及牛奶使用量――饮料消耗量的指示器。在海报为眼睛图像的每个周，盒中的钱数都会暴涨。

贝特森博士说，即使眼睛不是真的，它们似乎仍然能促使人们表现得更加诚实。这种效果可能起因于人类早期在结成社会群体维持生存的过程中形成的行为特性。社会群体要发挥作用，个人就必须为群体利益相互合作，而不能只顾自己。

“有一种观点认为，如果没有人监督，我们就会自私地按照个人的利益行事。可当我们想到有人监督时，我们就会表现得更好，以便人们看到我们乐于合作，并以同样的方式对待我们。”贝特森博士说。

当花卉图片被置于诚实盒上方时，人们会为每升牛奶支付10英镑到30英镑；当使用眼睛图像时，人们的支付额提高到了每升将近70英镑。如果眼睛是男性的，人们支付的就更多。“我们原以为用眼睛会取得微妙的效果，但没想到它们产生的效果竟然如此惊人。甚至在潜意识状态下，人们似乎都会对眼睛作出反应，这可能是因为眼睛和表情传递出了一种强烈的生物信号，而我们已经进化到能对这种信号作出反应了。”

科学家们说，政府和企业可以运用我们进化出的对别人注视的反应能力来提高人们的诚信度。“它提出了许多有趣的问题：我们如何改进体制从而减少行为，如何促使人们在公共交通方面足额付费。也许，那些写着‘闭路电视摄像机监控中’的警示语旁应附上眼睛图像而不是摄像机图片。我们还没有进化到注意摄像机的地步。”贝特森博士说。