Hawthorne effect

What is the concept of the hawthorns effect ? Also what do the hawthorns studies tell us about work relationship and doing research in the workplace ??

Reply 1

safeeyazee

haha its such a coincidence i js read about this really recently

okay so basically the hawthorne effect is when you do an experiment or research but the mere fact or knowledge of the experiment taking place causes skewed or biased results. so the orgin of this term is, i think there was this factory called hawthorne and a group was conducting an experiment on how certain conditions would affect the factory workers' productivity. so they tried making the lights dimmer, or brighter, and many other slight changes, only to find out that in EVERY case, it resulted in an increase in productivity. so while it can be said that their experiments were pretty much futile for the intended purpose, they realised that simply because the experiment was taking place, or just the knowledge of being observed caused the workers to behave a lot differently since they were aware that they're under scrutiny

so for example, say u work at a restaurant, and wanted to observe what and how much of certain food items people eat in a buffet, i think you'd get different results in each case, ie, if they know they're being observed versus if theyre unaware

hope that made sense :smile:

(edited 5 months ago)

Reply 2

Picnicl

So it's essentially related to the Placebo Effect, albeit the Hawthorne Effect requires some extra physical work too whereas the Placebo Effect is purely mental work (both consciously or unconsciously).

When feeling studied or cared for in some way (it is not necessary for these to be simultaneous), it tends to positively affect our results. We can see it in education. Even if we have a teacher that seems to know less than us, we're still more likely to do better than if we were completely self taught.