Turning it on its head, not being seen when one wants to be seen is a cause of anxiousness. Not being seen is sometimes interpreted as a pass for antisocial behavior. And what keeps religious people in line? God sees all.
In social work, yelling 'stop fighting' does little but yelling 'everyone is looking at you' works like magic.
In social work, yelling 'stop fighting' does little but yelling 'everyone is looking at you' works like magic.
Neat! Do you have any other little tricks like that?
There is some research that claims the feeling of being watched motivates you to engage in more prosocial behavior. Our gaze recognition ability is apparently hard for us to suppress even when we try to intentionally. When I think about times when I've been around friends, however, I usually feel the pressure to act in a way I feel will impress that specific friend, which is not necessarily pro-social. I imagine the disembodied eyes are not registered as "friends" and heighten our anxiety about who might be looking at us. I wonder whether having pictures of your role models in your workspace and people in your life who encourage you to do well when you talk to them might encourage you to engage in behavior more in line with those virtues you'd like to cultivate. Especially if you intentionally go for pictures where the people in them are looking at the camera directly.