Religions can discourage believers from erring for fear that God is watching. Now it seems that children also avoid cheating if told they鈥檙e being watched 鈥� not by God, but by Princess Alice, an invisible person conjured up by researchers.
Sixty-seven young children from Belfast, UK, volunteered to take part in a hit-the-target game designed by at the University of Kent in Canterbury, UK, and colleagues. But the rules of the game were so tough that success necessitated cheating.
While secretly being videoed, each child played the game either with an adult present, with no one present, or with no one except 鈥淧rincess Alice鈥� present.
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Chair check
Beforehand, they were all asked if they believed Princess Alice really existed. Of the 11 children who did, only 1 cheated in her 鈥減resence鈥�. Five of the seven disbelievers cheated, but not before they鈥檇 manually checked the Princess didn鈥檛 exist by running their hand over the chair to feel if she was there.
鈥淭his is an interesting example of an audience effect and the drive to preserve our reputation,鈥� says of University College London, who was not involved in the study. 鈥淚t鈥檚 certainly consistent with the idea that belief in an invisible watcher will increase social-norm conformity.鈥�
Next, the researchers hope to delve deeper by finding out why children behaved well when being watched by Alice: whether it was from fear she would punish them directly, or that she would tell the experimenter.
Journal reference:
When this article was first posted, it incorrectly stated the number of participants in the experiment.
