No effect on condemnation of short or long exposure to eye images

  • Adam Sparks University of Guelph
  • Pat Barclay University of Guelph
Keywords: eyes effect, condemnation, replication

Abstract

The effect of exposure to eye images on various behaviors has been explained as a response to an invalid cue of observation. This interpretation has been supported by an experiment showing that a short exposure to eye images increased dictator game generosity, but a long exposure did not. We attempted to conceptually replicate that finding with a different dependent variable, and found no effect of short or long exposure to eye images on moral condemnation. Thus, we failed to replicate previous work showing an effect of eye images on condemnation and therefore these results do not inform the invalid cue hypothesis. We found that women condemned more strongly than men and discuss this finding in light of functional theories of moral condemnation.

Author Biographies

Adam Sparks, University of Guelph
Department of Psychology
Pat Barclay, University of Guelph
Department of Psychology
Published
2015-08-17
Section
Original Articles