Monday, August 13, 2012

With most illegal activities occurring in the dark of the night, researchers have now illuminated the effect of light on our morals

People become less cautious and more daring when there is lesser risk of being exposed. Darkness also probably heightens the sensation of what you are doing and takes the edge away from internalised values, ethics and morals, essentially allowing denial to take over.”

Darkness helps conceal one’s actions and perhaps Earth’s day-and-night cycle serves to subconsciously reinforce this belief. The researchers feel that this evolutionary conditioning, combined with our ego-centric disposition (where we think others perceive things like us) of over-estimating that the world must be watching when we are anxious or disturbed, leads us to behave in this way. According to the researchers, even surfing the Internet in darkness may lead to concealed behaviour.

All researches are mere statistics if they can’t find applicability in real life. But this one finds form and figure in the brightly-lit ambience of places where unethical behaviour needs to be curbed. Proper lighting is vital, especially at places that operate round the clock like railway stations, and airports. And with the latest ruling that retail outlets can operate 24x7 in Gurgaon, we hope the authorities are paying attention to this study to ensure that no blanket of darkness is allowed to serve as perfect cover to the city’s robbers...


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posted by Editorial at 11:36 AM