The Hawthorne effect has been widely discussed in psychology textbooks, particularly those devoted toindustrial and organizational psychology.
However, research suggests that many of the original claims made about the effect may be overstated.
Why Is It Called the Hawthorne Effect?
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The electric company had commissioned research to determine if there was a relationship between productivity and work environments.
The researchers concluded that workers were responding to the increased attention from supervisors.
This suggested that productivity increased due to attention and not because of changes in the experimental variables.
Researchers and managers quickly latched on to these findings.
Later studies suggested, however, that these initial conclusions did not reflect what was really happening.
Later research into the Hawthorne effect suggested that the original results may have been overstated.
They did find, however, more subtle displays of a possible Hawthorne effect.
So what can researchers do to minimize these effects in their experimental studies?
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