FT.com / Weekend columnists / Tim Harford – Undercover Economist: Check this out – working with better people makes you better because you don’t want to be accused of slacking off: “But why? There are, broadly, two explanations. One is that workers are spurred to greater efforts when contemplating the superior speed of their colleague. This is psychologically plausible but economically irrational. A more cynical explanation is that workers do not like it when faster colleagues are looking at them, because they fear being accused of slacking off.
It might seem impossible to distinguish between these two possibilities, but at the checkout each worker is looking towards one colleague with his back to a second colleague who is looking at him.
It turns out that facing towards a fast worker makes no difference, but having a fast worker face towards you encourages frenetic scanner-wielding. So the cynics have it. And next time you hear the beep of a supermarket scanner, remember that Big Brother is watching you – and he