The eyes have it

... or more to the point, it seems that the eyes may help make sure you don't take it unless it's yours. The feeling of being watched makes people act more honestly, even if the eyes are not real, a study from the Newcastle University (UK) suggests. They tested this by monitoring whether people put money in an "honesty box" to pay for drinks in a canteen. If a poster above the box was a pair of eyes, people were more likely to be "honest" than if the poster was of flowers. The experiment was conducted with an existing "honesty box" and there was no mention in the BBC report I read if the same individuals changed their behaviour based on the poster. In fact, it seems that no-one was actually watching and taking notes of the experiment. As the BBC report said: "At the end of every week, the researchers calculated the total amount of money collected and the amount of drink likely to have been consumed."