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> If you feel you are being watched, you change your behavior. I feel like this has been known for a long time. For example: If you walk into a Kindergarten cl

> If you feel you are being watched, you change your behavior. I feel like this has been known for a long time. For example: If you walk into a Kindergarten class and watch the children play, once they notice you watching them they change behavior away from "natural play" to "observed play". I believe Cory Doctorow made this observation a spell ago. Edit: I'd like to add that one of my parents was a teacher in a school with two-way mirrors for observation. People could secretly observe a given class in session either for observing the teacher and//or observing the students live but without the "observer effect". The entire school building was designed for this purpose and whilst everyone knew it it appeared to work as intended. "Out of sight is out of mind" is real. Yes, this particular parent was on both sides of the glass.

giancarlostoro 6y ago
What kind of schools do that? I'm not familiar with this at all, man I'd feel weird being in a classroom with a huge mirror.
- drdeadringer 6y ago
  UMASS Amherst, an "experimental" elementary school for phycological observation. It's now no longer in operation, but for decades it was an elementary school with an upper "secret" corridor with two-way mirrors overlooking each classroom. The understanding between UMASS and Amherst was "We let you use the elementary school, we let our psych students take a look" type of thing. Each classroom had a row of two-way mirrors about 30 feet overhead [weird architecture, nature of the beast] so even physically it was out-sight and out-mind because "nobody looks up".
  - socialcooling 6y ago
    This sounds fascinating, but I can't seem to find more information online. Do you perhaps have a link or some keywords I should add to the search query?
    - giancarlostoro 6y ago
      I ran into the same wall, I would love to learn more about any discoveries they may of made.
    - drdeadringer 6y ago
      The elementary school was called "Mark’s Meadow Elementary School" in Amherst, MA.

giancarlostoro 6y ago

What kind of schools do that? I'm not familiar with this at all, man I'd feel weird being in a classroom with a huge mirror.

drdeadringer 6y ago
UMASS Amherst, an "experimental" elementary school for phycological observation. It's now no longer in operation, but for decades it was an elementary school with an upper "secret" corridor with two-way mirrors overlooking each classroom. The understanding between UMASS and Amherst was "We let you use the elementary school, we let our psych students take a look" type of thing. Each classroom had a row of two-way mirrors about 30 feet overhead [weird architecture, nature of the beast] so even physically it was out-sight and out-mind because "nobody looks up".
- socialcooling 6y ago
  This sounds fascinating, but I can't seem to find more information online. Do you perhaps have a link or some keywords I should add to the search query?
  - giancarlostoro 6y ago
    I ran into the same wall, I would love to learn more about any discoveries they may of made.
  - drdeadringer 6y ago
    The elementary school was called "Mark’s Meadow Elementary School" in Amherst, MA.