Tidigare forskning har visat att bilder på ögon kan få människor att bete sig mer samarbetsvilligt och vänligare mot andra, t.ex. genom att skräpa ned mindre. ”Big brother is watching you!”, så att säga. En ny studie, ”An Eye-Like Painting Enhances the Expectation of a Good Reputation”, accepterad för publicering i Evolution and Human Behavior, antyder att en viktig motivation är att vinnlägga sig om ett gott rykte:

We conducted the dictator game in the presence of, or without, a painting of stylized eyes. The participants were then asked to complete a post-experimental questionnaire designed to investigate what they were thinking when they decided the amount of money to offer the recipient and how they perceived the experimental situation. Participants in the eye condition allocated more money to the recipient than did those in the control condition. This effect was not mediated by fear of punishment but by the expectation of a reward. Moreover, the results suggested that the participants expected their actions would enhance their reputation in the eyes of a third party.

Redan Adam Smith noterade att detta med att ha ett gott rykte är viktigt för människor: se t.ex. bokkapitlet ”Good Conduct in the Great Society: Adam Smith and the Role of Reputation”.