Why being noticed and being watched are two very different things

In the famous study that gave rise to the term “the Hawthorne effect”, researchers early last century measured the productivity of workers in a factory near Chicago in varying amounts of light.

Legend has it that the researchers were surprised to discover that productivity increased whether the lighting was strong or dim. The reason? The important variable, more than the lighting, was the fact that the workers realised they were being watched.

Isolation and loneliness are significant social harms which are manifestations of people not being noticed.Credit: Tribune Life

This pointed to a truism, known only too well by performing artists and sportspeople: we act differently when we know people are watching.

Being watched, which can have sinister connotations, is quite different to being noticed. One suggests distance; the other, however fleetingly, a connection.

The line separating noticing from watching can at times be fuzzy. This article was mostly written in a “white space” café in Kyoto, where I was holidaying, where customers are seated in a tiered square formation so that they become both the watchers and the watched. Inadvertent glances can easily linger and become staring. But usually, it’s clear which side of the line you’re on.

We can communicate a lot by noticing, and by being seen to notice, all of which can be extraordinarily subtle.

There’s a terrific line in Patrick deWitt’s The Librarianist – itself a beautiful book about noticing the apparently unremarkable life of the central character, Bob. When a woman arrives at Bob’s house, possibly to stay, deWitt writes that “she arrived at Bob’s house with a suspiciously large shoulder bag, which Bob noticed and was noticed noticing”.

Noticing can take the form of bearing witness, which of course has a long religious tradition both in the sense of bearing witness to the truth, but also as an essential precursor to remediating a harm.

At the everyday level, not being noticed can have adverse consequences for us. Isolation and loneliness are significant social harms which, when you boil them down, are manifestations of people not being noticed.

Conversely, being noticed can be protective. A person who sees their neighbour regularly will tend to know if something is amiss.

While it’s self-evident that people are entitled to their privacy, it’s also important to recognise the human need to be noticed; and to accept that those less immediately noticeable need it as much as anyone.

I used to chat regularly with a young man with intellectual disability who would catch a bus near my home when he was going to work at the warehouse where he packed boxes.

His gruff protective expressions would quickly dissolve as he revealed the pride he had in going to work. He liked being noticed, and I enjoyed the fact that he appreciated my interest. As deWitt would say, I noticed and was noticed noticing.

John Chesterman is the Queensland Public Advocate

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