Observer Visibility and Comfort in a Surveillance Situation

This study investigated observers' reactions to watching a target individual embarrass himself. Observers' physical and psychological visibility were manipulated by varying (a) the target's presumed ability to see the observer during the embarrassing episode (physical visibility) and...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Sociometry 1977-12, Vol.40 (4), p.343-350
Main Authors: Levine, John M., Ranelli, Candice J.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Anger
Heart rate
Observational research
Polygraph testing
Psychology
Psychophysiology
Reasoning
Social psychology
Surveillance
Voyeurism
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Summary:This study investigated observers' reactions to watching a target individual embarrass himself. Observers' physical and psychological visibility were manipulated by varying (a) the target's presumed ability to see the observer during the embarrassing episode (physical visibility) and (b) the target's presumed knowledge that the observer could see the target (psychological visibility). Two replications of the study were conducted, one using male subjects and the other using females. In both replications, subjects observed a male confederate (target) overreact to his failure on a perceptual task. Both physical visibility and psychological visibility significantly affected male and female observers' subjective comfort and evaluations of the target, although the pattern of results differed somewhat as a function of observer's sex. Results were interpreted in terms of observers' desire to (a) reduce the target's embarrassment and (b) adhere to an antispying norm.
ISSN:0038-0431
0190-2725
1939-8999
DOI:10.2307/3033483