38 | JUNE 27 • 2024 
J
N

I

magine the following: You 
are driving ever so slightly 
above the speed limit. 
You see a police car in your 
rearview mirror. You slow 
down. You know perfectly 
well that it is 
wrong to exceed 
the speed limit 
whether anyone 
is watching or 
not but, being 
human, the 
likelihood of 
being found 
out and penalized makes a 
difference.
A series of experiments 
has been conducted by 
psychologists to test the 
impact of the sense of being 
observed on pro-social 
behavior. Chenbo Zhong, 
Vanessa Bohns and Francesca 
Gino constructed a test to 
see whether a feeling of 
anonymity made a difference. 
 They randomly assigned 
a group of students either 
sunglasses or clear glasses, 
telling them that they were 
testing reactions to a new 
product line. They were also, 
in an apparently unrelated 
task, given $6 and the chance 

of sharing any of it with a 
stranger. 
Those wearing clear glasses 
gave on average $2.71, while 
those wearing sunglasses gave 
an average of $1.81. The mere 
fact of wearing dark glasses, 
and thus feeling unrecognized 
and unrecognizable, reduced 
generosity. 
In another experiment, they 
found that students given the 
opportunity to cheat in a test 
were more likely to do so in 
a dimly lit room than in a 
brightly lit one. The more we 
think we may be observed, the 
more moral and generous we 
become.
Kevin Haley and Dan 
Fessler tested students on the 
so-called Dictator Game, in 
which you are given, say, $10, 
together with the opportunity 
of sharing any or none of it 
with an anonymous stranger. 
 Beforehand, and without 
realizing it was part of the 
experiment, some of the 
students were briefly shown 
a pair of eyes as a computer 
screen saver, while others 
saw a different image. Those 
exposed to the eyes gave 55% 
more to the stranger than the 

others. 
In another study, research-
ers placed a coffee maker in a 
university hallway. Passersby 
could take coffee and leave 
money in the box. On some 
weeks, a poster with watchful 
eyes was hanging on the wall 
nearby, on others a picture of 
flowers. On the weeks where 
the eyes were displayed, 
people left on average 2.76 
times as much money as at 
other times. 
Ara Norenzayan, author 
of the book Big Gods, from 
which these studies are taken, 
concludes that “watched 
people are nice people.”
That is part of what makes 
religion a force for honest and 
altruistic behavior: the belief 
that God sees what we do. 
It is no coincidence that, 
as belief in a personal God 
has waned in the West, 
surveillance by CCTV and 
other means has had to be 
increased. 
Voltaire once said, whatever 
his personal views on the 
matter, he wanted his butler 
and other servants to believe 
in God because then he would 
be cheated less. 

REMINDERS MAKE 
A DIFFERENCE
Less obvious is the 
experimental finding that 
what makes the difference 
to the way we behave is not 
simply what we believe, 
but rather the fact of 
being reminded of it. 
 In one test, conducted 
by Brandon Randolph-
Seng and Michael Nielsen, 
participants were exposed 
to words flashed for less 
than 100 milliseconds, 
that is, long enough to be 
detected by the brain but not 
long enough for conscious 
awareness. They were then 
given a test in which they 
had the opportunity to cheat. 
Those who had been shown 
words relating to God were 
significantly less likely to do 
so than people who had been 
shown neutral words. 
 The same result was 
yielded by another test in 
which, beforehand, some 
of the participants were 
asked to recall the Ten 
Commandments while others 
were asked to remember the 
last 10 books they had read. 
Merely being reminded of the 
Ten Commandments reduced 
the tendency to cheat.
Another researcher, 
Deepak Malhotra, surveyed 
the willingness of Christians 
to give to online charitable 
appeals. The response was 
300% greater if the appeal 
was made on a Sunday than 
on any other day of the week. 
Clearly, the participants 
did not change their minds 
about religious belief or the 
importance of charitable 
giving between weekdays and 
Sundays. It was simply that on 
Sundays they were more likely 
to have thought about God. 
 A similar test was carried 

Assembling 
 Reminders

Rabbi Lord 
Jonathan 
Sacks

SPIRIT
A WORD OF TORAH

