Big brother: the effects of surveillance on fundamental aspects of social vision

Despite the dramatic rise of surveillance in our societies, only limited research has examined its effects on humans. While most research has focused on voluntary behaviour, no study has examined the effects of surveillance on more fundamental and automatic aspects of human perception and cognition. Here, we provide the first evidence that being watched on CCTV markedly impacts a hardwired and involuntary function of human sensory perception — the ability to rapidly detect a face. Using the method of continuous flash suppression (CFS), we show that when people are surveilled (N=24), they are quicker than controls (N=30) to detect faces. An independent control experiment (N=42) ruled out an explanation based on demand characteristics. These findings show that being watched impacts not only consciously controlled behaviours but also unconscious, involuntary visual processing. Our results have implications concerning the impacts of surveillance on basic human cognition as well as public mental health.