A new psychological study has shown that when people know they are under surveillance, an automatic response of greater awareness of being watched is generated, with implications for public mental health.
In an article published in the magazine Neuroscience of Consciousness Psychology researchers from the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) worked with 54 participants to examine the effects of surveillance on an essential function of human sensory perception: the ability to detect another person’s gaze.
Lead author, associate professor of neuroscience and behavior Kiley Seymour, said previous research has established the effects on conscious behavior when people know they are being watched, but the new study provided the first direct evidence that being watched also has a involuntary response.
“We know that CCTV changes our behaviour, and that is the main drive for retailers and others who want to implement such technology to prevent unwanted behaviour,” said Associate Professor Seymour.
“However, we showed that it doesn’t just change overt behavior: our brain changes the way it processes information.
“We found direct evidence that being visibly monitored via CCTV markedly impacts a hardwired, involuntary function of human sensory perception: the ability to consciously detect a face.
“It is a mechanism that evolved so that we can detect other potential agents and threats in our environment, such as predators and other humans, and it appears to improve when we are observed on CCTV.
“Our monitored participants became hyperaware of facial stimuli almost a second faster than the control group. This perceptual improvement also occurred without the participants realizing it.”
Associate Professor Seymour said that given the increasing level of surveillance in society and ongoing debates over privacy reform, the study’s findings suggested the need for closer examination of the effects of surveillance on mental processes. and in public health in general.
“We had a surprising but disturbing finding: although participants reported little concern about being monitored, its effects on basic social processing were marked, highly significant, and imperceptible to participants.
“The ability to quickly detect faces is critically important for human social interactions. The information conveyed by faces, such as gaze direction, allows us to build models of other people’s minds and use this information to predict behavior.
“We see hypersensitivity to gaze in mental health conditions such as psychosis and social anxiety disorder, where individuals have irrational beliefs or concerns with the idea of being watched.
“While this research focused specifically on unconscious social processes, future research should explore the effects on the limbic system more broadly, which would have broader implications for public mental health and the importance of privacy.”