Hawthorne effect

The Hawthorne effect is a change in people’s behavior or performance associated with their awareness that they are being observed or studied.

Hawthorne studies: A series of workplace studies conducted at Western Electric’s Hawthorne Works near Chicago from the 1920s into the 1930s. These studies supplied the effect’s name, though their findings do not establish a simple observation effect.
Observer effect: A change in a system caused by the act of observing or measuring it. It is the broader idea of measurement changing what is measured.
Experimental design: The planning of experiments to test hypotheses while controlling variation and bias. Design choices determine whether an observation-related change can be separated from other causes.
Placebo effect: A beneficial or adverse change following an inert treatment, arising partly from expectations and treatment context. It concerns responses to treatment expectations, not necessarily awareness of being observed.
Workplace productivity: The amount of goods or services produced per unit of labor or other input. The Hawthorne effect is often invoked to explain temporary productivity gains under observation.
Hawthorne Works: A Western Electric manufacturing complex in Cicero, Illinois, where influential workplace studies took place. The factory setting gave the effect its enduring name.
Demand characteristics: Cues in a study that allow participants to infer its purpose and shape their responses accordingly. Participants may change behavior because they guess what investigators expect.
Randomized controlled trial: An experiment that assigns participants randomly to intervention and comparison groups. Random assignment helps control confounding, but does not by itself eliminate behavior changes from study participation.
Experimenter effect: A change in study outcomes caused by an investigator’s expectations or behavior. The causal influence comes from the investigator, rather than participants’ awareness of observation alone.
Participant observation: A qualitative research method in which investigators observe people while taking part in their social setting. Researchers using this method must consider how their presence may shape observed conduct.

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