Reputation or Norms? Unravelling the Mechanisms of Eye Cues in Promoting Social Mindfulness

Eye cues have been shown to promote prosocial behaviours, yet their impact on social mindfulness and the underlying mechanisms remain unclear. This study conducted two experiments using an adapted Social Mindfulness paradigm to investigate the effects of various eye cues on social mindfulness, focusing on reputation management and norm compliance. Experiment 1 compared the effects of eye cues, flowers, and a no-cue condition on social mindfulness behaviours. Experiment 2 further examined the differential effects of direct gaze, closed eyes, and flowers, while assessing both reputation and norm mechanisms. Results indicated that only direct gaze enhanced social mindfulness, while closed eyes had no effect. Eye cues increased the frequency of social mindfulness choices but did not affect the initial decision to engage in such behaviours. These findings suggested that the 'watching eyes effect' in social mindfulness reinforced rather than initiated such decisions. Additionally, reputation concern may represent a more fragile mechanism underlying the effect of eye cues in social mindfulness, whereas perceived social norms positively correlated with social mindfulness behaviours. This study underscores the role of eye cues in shaping social mindfulness and emphasises the significance of the norm mechanism, providing a theoretical foundation for fostering social mindfulness in interpersonal interactions.