Have you ever behaved differently because you were being watched?

[Ka Pilo]

Based on past experiences...

 

[Stijloor]

Based on past experiences...

Tell us more...

 

[somashekar]

Based on past experience, I have seen people who are seated, stand up and talk on phone when ever his boss has called.

 

[AndyN]

Its a well established industrial psychology behaviour, commonly known in the USA as the "Hawthorne Effect" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawthorne_Effect

Nothing new...

 

[BradM]

Its a well established industrial psychology behaviour, commonly known in the USA as the "Hawthorne Effect" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawthorne_Effect

Nothing new...

Lot's of interesting stuff surrounding those Hawthorne studies:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2464836/

While at Hawthorne, Shewhart met and influenced W Edwards Deming who went on to champion Shewhart's methods.4,5 Joseph Juran also worked at Hawthorne from 1924 to 1941 and was influenced by Shewhart. Shewhart, Deming, and Juran are often considered to be the three founders of the quality improvement movement. Two of Shewhart's contributions continue to influence the daily work of quality—namely, control charts and the Plan–Do–Study–Act (PDSA) cycle.

And the "brother" to the Hawthorne Effect:

In a controlled social experiment if a control is aware of their status as members of the control group and is able to compare their performance with that of the treatment group, members of the control group may actively work harder to overcome the "disadvantage" of being in the control group.

Summary: People do care about what other people think.

 

[AndyN]

Summary: People do care about what other people think.

Except, apparently, when they're driving!

 

[palmer]

It depends on the environment.

If you've played sports in front of a crowd you think about not messing up instead of concentrating on the task at hand.

If at work and the boss is around, you tend to tense up or act differently than if you did not have a person in an authoritative position lurking.

If you have an itch or clothes that need an adjustment, you would do it if alone and not do it or do it discreetly if not alone.

I'm sure there are hundreds of other examples.....

 

[mguilbert]

It also depends on the person and the culture.

At my job not many have visible tatoos. One person does (lower arm) and he covers them when in the office either by a long shirt or a wrap. I am sure their are others who may have piercings who remove visible ones depending on their surroundings.

But when out and about as many other travelers will tell there are those who will use "vulgar" language when waiting for a plane, at a restaurant, etc. while they are on a cell phone or to staff no matter who is there, whether it be children etc.

I try to remind myself that the "all seeing eye" is always there.