concept
Hawthorne Effect
People behave differently when they know they're being studied.
Origin
Named for a 1920sโ30s series of productivity experiments at the Hawthorne Works electrical factory near Chicago. Researchers found workers were more productive whenever conditions changed โ brighter lights, dimmer lights, longer breaks, shorter breaks โ apparently just because they were being observed. Later reanalysis cast doubt on the original studies, but the name stuck.
Modern usage
Cited in management writing, education research, and any debate about whether dashboards distort the work they measure.
Tags
psychology
measurement
workplace