Staring eyes poster improves effectiveness of honesty box
Howard Lake | 8 July 2006 | News
Researchers at Newcastle University have found that people put nearly three times as much money into an ‘honesty box’ when they were being watched by a pair of eyes on a poster, compared with a poster that featured an image of flowers. Is this an opportunity to boost income from static collecting boxes?
The results of the research, believed to be the first to test how cues of being watched affect people’s tendency for social co-operation in a real-life setting, have been published in the Royal Society journal Biology Letters.
Lead author of the study, Melissa Bateson, a Royal Society research fellow based at Newcastle University, said: “Our brains are programmed to respond to eyes and faces whether we are consciously aware of it or not.
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“Our findings suggest that people are less likely to be selfish if they feel they are being watched, which has huge implications for real life.”
For the best effect it seems that the eyes in the image had to appear to be looking directly at the viewer.
So, does the research apply to charity collecting boxes in the same way as honesty boxes? If so, will we start to see ‘Big Brother’-type eyes being built into static fundraising collection boxes to boost donations? UK Fundraising isn’t aware of any charities that have tested this approach but we’d be happy to report on any that have.
About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale.
He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.