How do eye cues affect behaviors? Two meta-analyses

Wang, Ruibing; Wang, Yunping; Chen, Chuansheng; Huo, Liyuan; Liu, Conghui

doi:10.1007/s12144-023-04395-6

Cited by 2 publications

(1 citation statement)

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“…However, Oda ( 2019 ) criticized these null findings, arguing that previous meta-analyses did not control for moderating factors. A more recent and inclusive meta-analysis (Wang et al, 2023 ), which more comprehensively integrated existing studies on the watching eyes effect and included some moderating variables, reported a small but significant impact of eye cues on pro-social behavior. Despite researchers' in-depth and varied explorations into the phenomena and mechanisms of the watching eyes effect, it continues to be a subject of controversy.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Watching eyes effect: the impact of imagined eyes on prosocial behavior and satisfactions in the dictator game

Lv,

Shen,

Huang

et al. 2024

Front. Psychol.

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The concept of the watching eyes effect suggests that the presence of eye or eye-like cues can influence individual altruistic behavior. However, few studies have investigated the effects of imagined eyes on altruistic behaviors and the psychological measures of dictators and recipients in the dictator game. This study used a 2 (Presentation Mode: Imagined/Visual) 2 (Cue Type: Eye/Flower) between-subject design and measured the effects of recipients' psychological variables and the communication texts between the dictator and the recipient. The results showed that there was a significant interaction between Presentation Mode and Cue Type. In the imagined condition, the dictator exhibited more altruistic behavior than in the visual condition. However, there was no significant difference in altruistic behavior between the Imagined Eye and Imagined Flower conditions. In addition, the study found that the Cue Type had a significant main effect on the recipients' satisfaction with the allocation outcome. Notably, in the Visual Flower condition, the dictator used more egoistic norm words when communicating with the recipient than other conditions. This study provides novel evidence on the effect of imagined social cues on individual behavior in the dictator game, and to some extent validates the robustness of the watching eyes effect under manipulation of higher-level verbal cognitive processes. At the same time, the study is the first to explore the impacts on recipients' psychological variables and the communication texts. These efforts offer new insights into the psychological and cognitive mechanisms underlying the watching eyes effect.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%