Research was recently conducted at the University of York that sheds some light on some of the less easily apparent aspects of human behavior. If you think about it, people do tend to behave differently in different situations. Sometimes people have a tendency to behave a bit better when they are around someone they are trying to impress. If you are in front of your boss, for example, it seems likely that you would want to try and make sure that they have a positive view of you.
However, what about when you are being watched? How does that change your behavior? The research that was recently conducted studied this particular area, and it involved 300 participants deciding amongst themselves who would receive a particular amount of money, and how that money would be divided amongst themselves. There was an anonymous participant as well, and it turns out that when the group of people were being watched they tended to be a bit fairer about the whole situation. When they thought they were not being watched, however, they tended to act in a bit more of a selfish manner.
An interesting aspect of this study is that behavior didn’t change according to ethnicity, gender, orientation or any other such marker of human identity. Some people just tended to not be as nice when they weren’t under the microscope which is something that a lot of people have intuitively known for quite some time but has not been scientifically proven up until this particular point in time.
Read next: Are People Really Concerned About Their Screen Time?
However, what about when you are being watched? How does that change your behavior? The research that was recently conducted studied this particular area, and it involved 300 participants deciding amongst themselves who would receive a particular amount of money, and how that money would be divided amongst themselves. There was an anonymous participant as well, and it turns out that when the group of people were being watched they tended to be a bit fairer about the whole situation. When they thought they were not being watched, however, they tended to act in a bit more of a selfish manner.
An interesting aspect of this study is that behavior didn’t change according to ethnicity, gender, orientation or any other such marker of human identity. Some people just tended to not be as nice when they weren’t under the microscope which is something that a lot of people have intuitively known for quite some time but has not been scientifically proven up until this particular point in time.
Read next: Are People Really Concerned About Their Screen Time?
