Image by Gregory TononIt is quite well-known that people’s morality can be more “flexible” when they are anonymous. Basically the repercussions for bad behaviour are much less when no-one knows who you are. Darkness can be a source of anonymity and so it can lead to moral transgressions and perhaps criminal acts.

Researchers from the University of Toronto and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill have published the results of a series of experiments that suggest people show significantly higher levels of self-interested and cheating behaviour when they are in a dimly lit room, but they took this idea a step further. In an effort to test the relationship between perception of darkness and bad behaviour, they examined people’s behavour when wearing dark glasses versus clear (unshaded) glasses. Even though we all know (consciously) that wearing sun glasses does very little to aid one’s anonymity, it seems that on a deeper level, we still think that darkness provides cover and some degree of anonymity whether it comes from nightfall or from Bolle.

The authors of the study (Chen-Bo Zhong, Vanessa K Bohns and Francesca Gino) found that wearing sunglasses is enough to trick the brain into thinking that the light has dimmed and you might just get away with being a little bit naughty. When asked to divide $6 between themselves and another person, however they saw fit, subjects wearing sun glasses showed significantly higher levels of self-serving behaviour, offering much less to the other person.

I guess this makes sense: as we have evolved there have been countess opportunities for us to “learn” that you can get away with more when it is dark. This is now well established deep in our genome. The advent of sun glasses was very recent and as far as our unconscious mind is concerned, if it looks dark, it is dark. This might also help explain Carey Hart wears sunglasses at night, but not completely.