Watching eyes effect: the impact of eye cues on tourists’ uncivilized behavior
通过实验发现，在提示牌上加入眼睛图案能减少游客不文明行为，其机制是提升公共自我意识，但拥挤环境会削弱效果。
Tourists’ uncivilized behavior has become a significant challenge to the sustainable development of tourism, necessitating effective management strategies. Drawing on the watching eyes effect theory, this study incorporates eye cues into the design of informational signage to explore the effectiveness of this strategy in mitigating tourists’ uncivilized behavior. Through three scenario-based experiments and a field experiment, we demonstrate the positive impact of eye cues in reducing uncivilized tourist behavior and identify public self-awareness as a mediating mechanism. Moreover, this study reveals that perceived crowding weakens the effectiveness of eye-cue interventions. These findings enrich the literature on tourism behavior management and offer valuable managerial insights: eye cues can effectively enhance tourists’ public self-awareness, thereby mitigating uncivilized behavior.