Being surveilled changes the brain, new research suggests, and it isn’t always for the better.
In the modern era, it’s easy to feel under constant surveillance. Between the presence of security cameras, doorbell cameras, the sale of your data to third-party companies and social media expectations to share your life online, it may feel like you’re always under watch.
But that feeling of being watched affects unconscious processing in the brain, a new study says, and it can have concerning impacts on mental health.
Studies about how people have behaved when being watched have long been a part of psychology and previous work has led to conclusions that surveillance could be used to encourage better behavior in people.
But newer research has found that being watched can come with negative consequences, affecting memory and cognition.
The latest study found that unconscious processes were affected by being watched, with participants in a study performing faster when under surveillance.
That may seem like a positive thing, but scientists say it puts the brain in constant fight-or-flight mode, something that can be stressful and taxing.
The impact is likely worse on those with mental illness, particularly conditions where people may be hypersensitive to being observed, like schizophrenia or social anxiety.
Researchers also warn that the ongoing stress of constant surveillance could reduce the capacity for people to concentrate, something for employers to consider when employing surveillance technology to monitor people at work.
