The Hawthorne Effect
What is The Hawthorne Effect?
The Hawthorne effect refers to the phenomenon where individuals modify their behavior in response to being observed or studied, often resulting in temporary performance improvements. This effect was first observed in workplace studies conducted in the 1920s and 1930s at Hawthorne Works, where researchers found that employees’ productivity increased simply because they knew they were part of an experiment rather than due to specific changes in working conditions. While typically associated with performance improvements, the Hawthorne effect more broadly highlights how social and psychological factors, such as attention and perceived importance, influence human behavior.
The Basic Idea
Do you remember being in school and having your teacher look over your shoulder as you completed an exam or a worksheet? Or perhaps you’ve had a boss who is a bit of a micromanager, scrutinizing your every move. Maybe growing up, you experienced helicopter parenting from a parent or babysitter following you around, watching to see exactly where you’re going and what you’re doing. In these situations, you may have noticed your productivity change—perhaps working more carefully or trying harder—simply because you knew someone was watching.
The Hawthorne effect describes how people tend to change their behavior when they’re aware of being observed, often resulting in short-term boosts in performance. This phenomenon is frequently seen in social and clinical research. Although most participants are well-intentioned, answering questions or contributing to an experiment in a research environment might shift people’s natural behavior and responses, whether consciously or unconsciously.
Participating in a study can be exciting and often rewarding—especially when there’s a financial incentive involved—but when participants are eager to help the researchers, they may unwittingly work to confirm the researchers’ hypothesis or bias the data in other ways, a related phenomenon known as demand effects. The Hawthorne effect reveals one way that experimental environments influence subjects beyond the introduction of particular variables, and it continues to shape how we conduct and interpret research in social science.
“When people believe they are important in a project, anything works, and, conversely, when they don’t believe they are important, nothing works.”
— Joanne Yatvin, former president of the National Council of Teachers of English1
About the Author
Annika Steele
Annika completed her Masters at the London School of Economics in an interdisciplinary program combining behavioral science, behavioral economics, social psychology, and sustainability. Professionally, she’s applied data-driven insights in project management, consulting, data analytics, and policy proposal. Passionate about the power of psychology to influence an array of social systems, her research has looked at reproductive health, animal welfare, and perfectionism in female distance runners.
