Even three dots suggesting eyes reduce selfish behavior in economic games.

Evidence

People are so sensitive to social monitoring that even schematic representations of eyes can change behavior in a more prosocial direction. This hypervigilance can be seen even when people are merely looking at three black dots arranged to look like a schematic face with eyes (in the form of an upside-down triangle standing on its pointed tip). Psychologist Mary Rigdon and her colleagues took advantage of the fact that such a configuration is known to weakly but consistently activate the face-recognition (or fusiform) area of the brain. They randomly assigned some of their US participants to look at this configuration, while other participants were randomly assigned to a control condition, where they also saw identical three black dots, but in a triangular configuration, which does not suggest a face or gazing eyes. All participants then played the Dictator Game. Despite being a very subtle social cue, exposure to a watching-eyes configuration tempered selfishness. Only 25 percent of participants who saw dots configured to look like a face gave nothing (the selfish strategy), whereas 40 percent of the control participants chose this strategy. — Norenzayan, Ara, Big gods - how religion transformed…, 90

Categorization

• XREF: Supports the reader’s mechanism claim that bare schematic watchfulness triggers prosociality — relevant background for why the fumi-e ritual’s public spectacle matters rather than merely the trampling act.
• QUESTION: The effect was pronounced among men — relevant whether the Japanese authorities’ audience was predominantly male (priests, officials, villagers) which would amplify the surveillance effect.