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CHAPTER: Appendix

Hawthorne Effect Myth Being watched affects your behavior

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The research underpinning the Hawthorne effect was flawed, and the story is a myth though being watched does affect your behavior.

The Hawthorne effect is where individuals modify their behavior in response to their awareness of being taken notice of or observed.

Credit: Wikipedia: Hawthorne effect

You are probably familiar with the Hawthorne effect, and you will find it frequently referenced in management literature.

What you might not know is that the research was flawed, and the story is a myth.

This does not mean that being watched does not affect behavior — it does —  just that the Hawthorne research does not support the idea.

Is the Hawthorne Effect a Myth? | Todd Grande

Credit: Thanks to David Creelman for pointing me to this research.

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Tags: behaviour (17) | Hawthorne effect (1)

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One thought on “Hawthorne Effect Myth Being watched affects your behavior”

  1. Actually, more recent research has shown the Hawthorne effect is a myth.
    see: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17091208

    (or Google “Hawthorne Effect Debunked”)

    I suspect our instincts are right in that there is some kind of truth related to the supposed effect; but whatever that hypothesized “some kind of truth” is, it did not show up in the Hawthorne experiments on productivity.

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