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The Hawthorne effect: A reconsideration of the methodological artifact.

Adair, John G.·1984·Journal of Applied Psychology

DOI 10.1037/0021-9010.69.2.334

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Abstract

Reviews the literature on the Hawthorne effect (HE) which originated out of the studies at the Hawthorne Works of the Western Electric Company. This effect is generally defined as the problem in field experiments that Ss' knowledge that they are in an experiment modifies their behavior from what it would have been without the knowledge. An examination of the Hawthorne studies conducted 50 yrs ago does not reveal this “effect” probably because there were so many uncontrolled variables. HE is inconsistently described in contemporary psychology textbooks, and there is lack of agreement on how the effect is mediated. Controls for the HE in current field research (mostly in education) took several forms, each designed for different purposes. In 13 studies designed to produce HEs, only 4 using adult Ss were successful. It is suggested that most persons in any clearly identified situation define the context for their behavior and respond accordingly; the necessity to ascertain Ss' view of the experiment requires different procedures than those typically used to control for HEs in the past. It is concluded that better articulation of how to adapt postexperimental questioning procedures to a diversity of experimental settings is needed. (68 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved)

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Land-use spillovers from environmental policy interventions
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“…Program (Giudice et al., 2019), where perceived monitoring triggered a Hawthorne effect, the phenomenon where individuals alter their behavior in response to being observed or knowing they are part of a study (Adair, 1984), reducing deforestation in observed areas but not in unmonitored zones.”
Nonresponse and Underreporting Errors Increase over the Data Collection Week Based on Paradata from the National Household Food Acquisition and Purchase Survey
Hu, M., Gremel, G. W., Kirlin, J. A., & West, B. T. (2017) · Journal of Nutrition · doi:10.3945/jn.116.240697 · Cited by 19
The Effectiveness of the Effectuation Approach on Opportunity Identification and Pursuit: Evidence From a Randomized Controlled Field Experiment
Zhu, J., Bischoff, K. M., Fresé, M., Gielnik, M. M., Handrich, E., & Bellstedt, D. (2020) · Academy of Management Learning and Education · doi:10.5465/amle.2017.0092 · Cited by 21
Is It Better to Give Than to Receive? Leveraging Digital Social Connections for Healthy Behavior
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Validating the relationship between service quality, patient sensitivity and experience towards medical applications using SERVQUAL
Malathi, A. C. J., & Jasim, K. M. (2022) · International Journal of Medical Informatics · doi:10.1016/j.ijmedinf.2022.104883 · Cited by 26
Development of a person-centered caregiver singing model for formal caregivers of people living with dementia in South Africa
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E-contact facilitated by conversational agents reduces interethnic prejudice and anxiety in Afghanistan
Sahab, S., Haqbeen, J. A., Hadfi, R., Itō, T., Imade, R. E., Ohnuma, S., & Hasegawa, T. (2024) · Communications Psychology · doi:10.1038/s44271-024-00070-z · Cited by 18
“Moreover,concerns related to social desirability bias may emerge, where participants might feel compelled to provide socially desirable opinions due to the awareness of being observed (the Hawthorne effect 91 ) by a CA.”
Bulgaria at the Crossroads of Entrepreneurship
Dana, L. (2000) · Journal of Euromarketing · doi:10.1300/j037v08n04_02 · Cited by 19
Impact of process conformance on the effects of test-driven development
Fucci, D., Turhan, B., & Oivo, M. (2014) · Proceedings of the ... ACM-IEEE International Symposium on Empirical Software Engineering and Measurement/International Symposium on Empirical Software Engineering and Measurement · doi:10.1145/2652524.2652526 · Cited by 19
“Evaluation apprehension, the human tendency to fear being evaluated [18], should not be critical because the subjects knew that their performance during the task was not used for the purpose of the course evaluation, whereas, the Hawthorne effect [2] might have taken place because the researchers observed the subjects…”
Background
Narrowcasting in social media
Gonçalves, J., Kostakos, V., & Venkatanathan, J. (2013) · IEEE/ACM International Conference on Advances in Social Networks Analysis and Mining (ASONAM) · doi:10.1145/2492517.2492570 · Cited by 19
“However, we cannot be fully confident about this finding because another possible explanation for our results may be the Hawthorne effect [2].”
Result
Using Pacioli’s pedagogy and medieval text in today’s introductory accounting course
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“To avoid any occurrence of a ‘Hawthorne’ reactivity effect (Adair 1984, 334, 337), at no time were the students told that the course was in any way different from how it had been in previous years.”
Background
Measuring Teacher Effectiveness in Gifted Education
Welsh, M. E. (2011) · Journal of Advanced Academics · doi:10.1177/1932202x11424882 · Cited by 21
“First, teachers may change their behavior because they are being observed, resulting in observations that do not reflect typical instruction, a phenomenon commonly referred to as a Hawthorne effect (Adair, 1984).”
Background
Video feedback intervention: a case series in the context of childhood hearing impairment
James, D. M., Kamble, M. W., & Lam‐Cassettari, C. (2013) · International Journal of Language & Communication Disorders · doi:10.1111/1460-6984.12039 · Cited by 19
“Secondly, in line with advice about the avoidance of the misattribution of intervention effects (Adair 1984), we sought the opinion of the families themselves on the benefit of the intervention.”
Background
Design of the BRISC study: a multicentre controlled clinical trial to optimize the communication of breast cancer risks in genetic counselling
Ockhuysen-Vermey, C. F., Henneman, L., van Asperen, C. J., Oosterwijk, J. C., Menko, F. H., & Timmermans, D. R. M. (2008) · BMC Cancer · doi:10.1186/1471-2407-8-283 · Cited by 19
“Condition 6, in which no intervention is given (usual care, henceforth defined as the control group) is used to control for the effect of repetition of the risk information (as compared to condition 5), and will control for Hawthorne effects [38].”
A Context-Aware Analysis Scheme for Bloom’s Taxonomy
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The impact of individualised cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk estimates and lifestyle advice on physical activity in individuals at high risk of CVD: a pilot 2 × 2 factorial understanding risk trial
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How teachers teach and readers read. Developing reading comprehension in English in Norwegian upper secondary school
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Effectiveness of various interventions on maintenance of gingival health during 1 year – a randomized clinical trial
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Calibrating Reliance on Automated Advice: Transparency and Trust Calibration Feedback
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“Albeit we cannot rule out the presence of demand characteristics (Hawthorne effect; Adair, 1984) on the self-reports made by participants post-task completion.”
The untapped potential of causal inference in cross-modal research
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Reality check of using the surgical safety checklist: A qualitative study to observe application errors during snapshot audits
Sendlhofer, G., Lumenta, D. B., Pregartner, G., Leitgeb, K., Tiefenbacher, P., Gombotz, V., Richter, C., Kamolz, L., & Brunner, G. A. (2018) · PLoS ONE · doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0203544 · Cited by 18
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“It is also possible that schools in the intervention group without additional personal support were subject to the Hawthorne effect: if they had participated in The Daily Mile outside of a research context, they might have adhered less strictly to the protocol than the schools with additional personal support [28].”
Background
Electrifying the company car: Identifying hard and soft barriers among fleet managers in Switzerland
Vuichard, P. (2021) · Energy Research & Social Science · doi:10.1016/j.erss.2021.102098 · Cited by 18
“the limitations concerns the Hawthorne effect - the feeling of being observed and its effect on the results [78,79].”
Background
Telemedicine-Based Treatment Versus Hospitalization in Patients with Severe Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease and Exacerbation: Effect on Cognitive Function. A Randomized Clinical Trial
Schou, L., Østergaard, B., Rasmussen, L. S., Rydahl‐Hansen, S., Jakobsen, A. S., Emme, C., & Phanareth, K. (2014) · Telemedicine Journal and e-Health · doi:10.1089/tmj.2013.0224 · Cited by 19
“24 In addition, a practice effect from repeated testing within a short period of time could have affected the test results in both groups.”
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“The Hawthorne effect is a potential problem that occurs in experiments in which subjects’ knowledge that they are in an experiment modifies their behavior from what it would have been without the knowledge.(25) The first Hawthorne effect was reported in an industrial study, where an increase in productivity of the wor…”
Background
Analysis of Community Pharmacy Workflow Processes in Preventing Dispensing Errors
Hoxsie, D. M., Keller, A., & Armstrong, E. P. (2006) · Journal of Pharmacy Practice · doi:10.1177/0897190005285602 · Cited by 18
“Inasmuch as study participants knew they were being observed by providing informed consent, pharmacy personnel may have been more compliant with the pharmacy’s dispensing workflow criteria (the Hawthorne effect).(16) To minimize this bias, study investigators did not immediately begin collecting data as they observed…”
Revenue effects of practice nurse-led care for chronic diseases
Iles, R. A., Eley, D. S., Hegney, D. G., Patterson, E., Young, J., Mar, C. D., Synnott, R. L., & Scuffham, P. (2014) · Australian Health Review · doi:10.1071/ah13171 · Cited by 17
A realist evaluation of how, why and when objective structured clinical exams (OSCEs) are experienced as an authentic assessment of clinical preparedness
Yeates, P., Maluf, A., Kinston, R., Cope, N. A., Cullen, K. M., Cole, A., O’Neill, V., Chung, C.-W., Goodfellow, R., Vallender, R., et al. (2024) · Medical Teacher · doi:10.1080/0142159x.2024.2339413 · Cited by 17
“This may partly be because people find it hard to behave naturally whilst being observed (i.e. the Hawthorne Effect) (Adair 1984), a phenomenon which also occurs in workplace-based assessment (Watling et al. 2016).”
An intervention program with the aim to improve and maintain work productivity for workers with rheumatoid arthritis: design of a randomized controlled trial and cost-effectiveness study
van Vilsteren, M., Boot, C. R. L., Steenbeek, R., van Schaardenburg, D., Voskuyl, A. E., & Anema, J. R. (2012) · BMC Public Health · doi:10.1186/1471-2458-12-496 · Cited by 17
“A potential source of bias is the difference in attention patients receive, also called the Hawthorne effect [51].”
Background
Use of the BATHE Method in the Preanesthetic Clinic Visit
DeMaria, S., DeMaria, A. P., Silvay, G., & Flynn, B. C. (2011) · Anesthesia & Analgesia · doi:10.1213/ane.0b013e318229497b · Cited by 17
If it works there, will it work here? The effect of a multi-component responsible beverage service (RBS) programme on violence in Oslo
Skarðhamar, T., Fekjær, S. B., & Pedersen, W. (2016) · Drug and Alcohol Dependence · doi:10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2016.10.019 · Cited by 17
“…STAD intervention was associated with a so-called ‘Hawthorne effect’, i.e., the effects may have been the result of the effects of the involved actors and institutions of being singled out and made to feel important, and not of the intervention per se (Adair, 1984; McCambridge et al., 2014).”
Background

Authors: Adair, J. G.
Affiliations: University of Manitoba (CA)
Corresponding author: Adair, John G.
Venue: Journal of Applied Psychology
Publisher: American Psychological Association (APA)
Published: 1984-05
Volume: 69
Issue: 2
Pages: 334-345
ISSN: 0021-9010 (ISSN-L)
1939-1854
DOI: 10.1037/0021-9010.69.2.334
OpenAlex: W2078241739
Cited by: 1,095
References: 39
Citations by year: 2026: 63 · 2025: 88 · 2024: 55 · 2023: 36 · 2022: 43 · 2021: 46 · 2020: 57 · 2019: 50 · 2018: 47 · 2017: 40 · 2016: 66 · 2015: 65 · 2014: 58 · 2013: 52 · 2012: 54
FWCI: 2.77
Type: journal article
Language: en
Open access: closed
Locations: Journal of Applied Psychology (publishedVersion)
Topics: Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Psychology Research and Bibliometrics
Social Sciences › Psychology › General Psychology › Academic and Historical Perspectives in Psychology
Social Sciences › Economics, Econometrics and Finance › Economics and Econometrics › Experimental Behavioral Economics Studies
Keywords: Hawthorne effect, methodological artifacts, field experiments, experimenter effects, Hawthorne studies, Western Electric Company, educational research

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The Hawthorne effect: A reconsideration of the methodological artifact.

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