Hawthorne effect
noun · first attested 1953
None of the researchers who ran the original studies ever used the phrase.
A change in the behavior of research subjects caused by their knowing they are observed rather than by the thing being tested.
41.8500°N -87.7400°W · Q3552649
Record
- Relationship
- Named from the place
- Confidence
- Well attestedThe place link is the standard scholarly account.
- Attested
- 1953
- Part of speech
- noun
Explanations here are written for this atlas. Dictionary text is not copied; the sources are linked so the claim can be checked.
- Step 1
Hawthorne Works
- In English
Hawthorne effect
Western Electric ran productivity experiments at its Hawthorne Works in Cicero, Illinois, between 1924 and 1932, varying lighting, rest breaks, and pay. John R. P. French attached the name in 1953, and Henry Landsberger's 1958 reanalysis of the studies made it standard. Later examinations of the surviving records have questioned whether the effect in the original data was anything like as large as the story implies.