Why one look will put the fear of god into you

Well, it looks as if the eyes have it! Have you experienced the unnerving sensation of feeling like you're being watched by a portrait? Such as the Mona Lisa? Or my great great grandfather who's portrait looks as if he's watching your every move no matter where you are in the room?
Then, of course, how many of us are able to look someone in the eye when we've done wrong? As a child could you look your mum in the eye when you'd told a lie? I couldn't. Mum's eyes on me really put the fear of God into me!
Now science has set about to prove it!!

Why one look will put the fear of god into you: "DOES it feel like you're being watched all the time?
An image of a pair of eyes is all it takes to make people more honest or judge the behaviour of others more harshly, research shows.
The effect may help explain why widespread belief in an omnipresent god has evolved.
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Pierrick Bourrat, a philosophy research student at the University of Sydney, and his colleagues presented more than 90 people with two stories of moral transgressions - keeping money found in a lost wallet, and faking a resume. Half were given the stories on a piece of paper with eyes on it, and the other half saw an image of a flower." ... [read on]