A simple, low-cost defence against thieves and freeloaders, dosen't include electronic surveillance

To study, Human behavior, researchers have conducted a sly experiment on their colleagues at the University of Newcastle, northeastern England. The university's psychology department put "honesty box" in which academics were urged to pay for using tea, coffee and milk. Up to 10 weeks, the researchers placed a sign on the door of the cupboard where the honesty box was located. Pictures of flowers alternated weekly with pictures of eyes -- male or female, with expressions that ranged from alert and watchful to manic. Every week, the money collected in the honesty box was counted and the resultes showed that on weeks when the "eyes" image was shown, the money collected was 276 percent more than during the "flower image" weeks. People are "strongly attuned" to subconscious cues about behavior that could tarnish their image, the study suggested.