Hawthorne effect

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawthorne_effect

by Hooke • 3 years ago

68 45 3 years ago

en.wikipedia.org

balaji1• 3 years ago

Is there a tool that indicates how "popular" a Wiki page is? Something like a Google Trends metric of how often the topic is searched for.

DoktorDelta• 3 years ago

I'm not sure about searches, but you can view the metrics for page views: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Pageview_statistics

scrum-treats• 3 years ago

Thanks for this! I took a peak at traffic to the "artificial general intelligence" page. Quite the surge in traffic for 2023: https://pageviews.wmcloud.org/?project=en.wikipedia.org&plat....

postsantum• 3 years ago

Related: Social Cooling 2692 points

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24627363

pkkm• 3 years ago

I've been wondering whether this effect is behind the positive results of 4-day work week trials. Does anyone know about data that could answer this?

atleastoptimal• 3 years ago

Even more so, if they were to do a control group with a 5 day work week, I'm certain the 4 day workers would still deliberately work harder to prove that 4 day work weeks work, thus providing more evidence to convince bosses to implement them.

bheadmaster• 3 years ago

Perhaps the only way to measure true productivity is to tell people they're on permanent 4 day work week and then pull a sike after the secret measurements are done.

seizethecheese2• 3 years ago

This calls into question most psychological research.

crazygringo• 3 years ago

No it doesn't, as psychological studies are done using control groups that, if implemented properly, ought to respond equally to any Hawthorne effect.

seizethecheese2• 3 years ago

Regardless, the results are extrapolated to situations with no Hawthorne effect. So still , much of the research holds only when being observed

DoreenMichele3• 3 years ago

A lot of psychological studies are so poorly designed you can ignore the results completely for other reasons and not worry too much about this effect.

mrfumier• 3 years ago

Why?

lucumo• 3 years ago

Any study that isn't replicated at least a few times, should be called into question.

That goes double or triple for psychology studies where it's not exception to find that less than half of a set of studies can be replicated: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Replication_crisis#Prevalence

brianpan• 3 years ago

The Hawthorne effect doesn't necessarily apply to all people, nor does it affect all behaviors.

For example- it's difficult to poll people on some contentious topics. If you ask people, "Are you racist?" they tend to answer that they are not.

This doesn't call into question most or all polls. It just needs to be taken into account when designing and interpreting polls and especially with certain topics. The same applies to psychological research.

nologic01• 3 years ago

Social research has a sort of quantum uncertainty principle embedded in it: The observer disturbs the observed by the mere act of onbservation.

jll29• 3 years ago

Related: https://dictionary.apa.org/experimenter-bias (= Subjects behave in ways that they believe help the experimenter.)

williamcotton• 3 years ago

What is it called when someone is watching me type and then my fingers stop working?

whatyesaid• 3 years ago

Anxiety?

itisit• 3 years ago

Surveillance Anxiety, perhaps.

sam1r• 3 years ago

Possible privy to your privacy

renewiltord• 3 years ago

The Watched Kettle Effect.

publius_0xf3• 3 years ago

Reflexivity is like being your own observer, if you think about it. Suggests that we can modify our own behavior we are aware of ourselves, and that individuals lacking reflexivity are more "automatic", so to speak.

jonstewart• 3 years ago

Jeremy Bentham and his Panopticon would like a word...

medler2• 3 years ago

The book The Effective Executive recommends keeping detailed logs of your activity for two weeks so you can better understand where your time goes. I did that and found that keeping those logs made me far more focused and productive. Knowing I would have to write down “spent 6 minutes looking for the perfect song to listen to” or “argued with people online about politics for 14 minutes” kept me on task like nothing else. It’s unsustainable but it was a nice short-term productivity boost.

rendall3• 3 years ago

I wonder if automated collection of daily activity - for self-evaluation only - perhaps through home automation or wearables - might help self-correct negative patterns or correlations.

DoreenMichele3• 3 years ago

A lot of people "waste time" when they are tired or under the weather. They may not realize that's why. If it's why, telling them they are "wasting time" probably won't have much effect.

realitysballs• 3 years ago

Oh man I feel like I had exact same outcome for that experiment. Also when logging your food for nutritional analysis I ate much healthier food during period of logging.

joko42• 3 years ago

I found that tracking my income & expenses makes me more thrifty.

cainxinth• 3 years ago

Works for dieting too. People hilariously underestimate how many calories they consume on a daily basis… until they have to record them all.

eternityforest• 3 years ago

Dieting is really odd. It seems like a lot of people are both trying to lose weight, and making an effort to remind themselves to eat even if they aren't hungry.

jeffparsons2• 3 years ago

It’s unsustainable but [...]

I was nodding along, including to this bit — and then I thought, why? It echoes my experience of finding it hard to stick to processes like these even when I find the results not just useful but also gratifying. I guess there's something about it that I resist? The sacrifice of spontaneity perhaps? Why do _you_ say it is unsustainable?

I've often thought that the most impactful productivity tool for me would be a personal assistant reminding me to follow procedures that I'd previously decided were a good idea. Or barring that, a software equivalent. A personal digital assistant, if you will.

ChrisLTD2• 3 years ago

We’re human beings, not machines. We didn’t evolve with the capacity for 100% focused productivity all the time. Our energy levels ebb and flow. We have to physically move to keep our muscles and bones healthy.

medler2• 3 years ago

Well, it felt unsustainable to me. Logging everything by hand was very tedious and it would have been a real pain to keep it up long term.

Maybe I could do it if I had some good tools to make the logging easier. I know lawyers are often required to log where their time goes in 15 minute increments, so it’s possible those tools already exist. I should take some time to look into what’s out there.

1letterunixname• 3 years ago

Panopticon: that surveillance screen hanging at the entrance to Walmart

mrkeen• 3 years ago

The "Hawthorne effect" is a myth, but what keeps the story going?

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17091208/

mikehall314• 3 years ago

The evidence on Hawthorne Effect is actually pretty poor

https://www.mcgill.ca/oss/article/critical-thinking-history/...

timcobb• 3 years ago

Hawthorne effect

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