Hawthorne effect n. Improvement in the performance or productivity of workers or students resulting from the introduction of new working methods or conditions, irrespective of the nature of the changes, the effect often being attributed to the feeling of being under concerned observation.
In the mid 1920s, informal tests at the Hawthorne works of the effects of changes in lighting on the productivity of women factory workers inspecting parts, assembling relays, and winding coils suggested that the women worked faster irrespective of the lighting changes that were introduced. The first formal investigation of the effect was the Relay Assembly Test Room experiment, focusing on the effects of rest pauses and changes in hours of work, which ran from 1927 to 1932 under the directorship of the Australian psychologist Elton Mayo (1880–1949), with the collaboration of the US human relations researcher Fritz J(ules) Roethlisberger (1898–1974) and others.
The interpretation of all the Hawthorne studies has been a matter of controversy, especially since the mid 1970s. [Named after the Hawthorne works in Chicago where the Western Electric Company manufactured equipment for Bell Telephone Systems and where seven separate studies on the effects of changes in working conditions were carried out between 1924 and 1932]
How to cite this entry: "Hawthorne effect n." A Dictionary of Psychology. Edited by Andrew M. Colman. Oxford University Press 2009. Oxford Reference Online. Oxford University Press. 18 February 2012
