SecurityRatty: Surveillance and the use of social psychology

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Surveillance and the use of social psychology

2007-03-13 23:30:47 by Perry Carpenter in Security Renaissance

There is a lot of talk about both surveillance and psychology these days. The following photo and quote taken from Boing Boing.

The quote below is from a recent New York Times Magazine article describing a psychology experiment conducted by Newcastle University in which those conducting the experiments taped alternating photos above an “on your honor” coffee station.

For 10 weeks this spring, they alternately taped two posters over the coffee station. During one week, it was a picture of flowers; during the other, it was a pair of staring eyes. Then they sat back to watch what would happen.

A remarkable pattern emerged. During the weeks when the eyes poster stared down at the coffee station, coffee and tea drinkers contributed 2.76 times as much money as in the weeks when flowers graced the wall.

The photo is especially interesting because it is using both positive and negative forms of social psychology simultaneously. It intends to reassure and provide a sense of safety to law abiding citizens; and it is intended to discourage miscreants.