Godlike princess curbs childhood cheating

Delirium

Scientists in Belfast ran experiments on children to see if the prospect of an invisible watcher would influence their behaviour.

Religions can discourage believers from erring for fear that God is watching. Now it seems that children also avoid cheating if told they're being watched – not by God, but by Princess Alice, an invisible person conjured up by researchers.

Thirty-nine young children from Belfast, UK, volunteered to take part in a hit-the-target game designed by Jared Piazza 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 "Princess Alice" present.

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 "presence". Five of the seven disbelievers cheated, but not before they'd manually "checked" the Princess didn't exist by running their hand over the chair to feel if she was there.

"This is an interesting example of an audience effect and the drive to preserve our reputation," says Chris Frith of University College London, who was not involved in the study. "It's certainly consistent with the idea that belief in an invisible watcher will increase social-norm conformity."

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.

Link to article on NewScientist.com

Penn

Reminds me of Ricky Gervais saying that for a single parent, Jesus is the World's cheapest babysitter. Very interesting stuff though