How One Look Puts the Fear of God into a Person

A study has found that it takes just one look or an image of a pair of eyes to put the fear of God into a person.

The study's effect may help explain why widespread belief in an omnipresent god has evolved, the Sydney Morning Herald reported.

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Pierrick Bourrat, a philosophy research student at the University of Sydney, and his colleagues presented more than 90 people with two stories of moral transgressions, keeping money found in a lost wallet, and faking a resume.

Half were given the stories on a piece of paper with eyes on it, and the other half saw an image of a flower.

Those who saw the eyes expressed greater disapproval of the misdemeanours.

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Other research has shown a pair of eyes nearly trebled the money people put in an honesty box to pay for their tea or coffee.

One possible explanation is that the eyes unconsciously trigger a basic mental mechanism humans have evolved to be very sensitive to their impression on other people, so they maintain their own reputation.

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And one theory of the origin of religion is that the idea of an all-seeing, all-knowing God who punishes bad behaviour has had a role in the development of this high level of social co-operation.

Bourrat said his study did not prove this. But it showed there was a mental process that the religious idea of a judgmental omniscient being could draw upon.

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Source-ANI