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Hawthorne effect
- balaji1 3y agoIs 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 3y agoI'm not sure about searches, but you can view the metrics for page views: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Pageview_statistics https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Pageview_statistics
- scrum-treats 3y agoThanks 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&platform=all-access&agent=user&redirects=0&start=2015-07-01&end=2023-04-23&pages=Artificial_general_intelligence https://pageviews.wmcloud.org/?project=en.wikipedia.org&plat....
- postsantum 3y agoRelated: Social Cooling 2692 points https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24627363 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24627363
- pkkm 3y agoI'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 3y agoEven 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 3y agoPerhaps 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.
- Casteil 3y agoThat sounds like a great way to lose good employees.
- seizethecheese 3y agoThis calls into question most psychological research.
- crazygringo 3y agoNo it doesn't, as psychological studies are done using control groups that, if implemented properly, ought to respond equally to any Hawthorne effect.
- seizethecheese 3y agoRegardless, the results are extrapolated to situations with no Hawthorne effect. So still , much of the research holds only when being observed
- DoreenMichele 3y agoA 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 3y agoWhy?
- lucumo 3y agoAny 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 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Replication_crisis#Prevalence
- brianpan 3y agoThe 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 3y agoSocial research has a sort of quantum uncertainty principle embedded in it: The observer disturbs the observed by the mere act of onbservation.
- jll29 3y agoRelated: https://dictionary.apa.org/experimenter-bias https://dictionary.apa.org/experimenter-bias (= Subjects behave in ways that they believe help the experimenter.)
- williamcotton 3y agoWhat is it called when someone is watching me type and then my fingers stop working?
- whatyesaid 3y agoAnxiety?
- itisit 3y agoSurveillance Anxiety, perhaps.
- sam1r 3y agoPossible privy to your privacy
- renewiltord 3y agoThe Watched Kettle Effect.
- publius_0xf3 3y agoReflexivity 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 3y agoJeremy Bentham and his Panopticon would like a word...
- medler 3y agoThe 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.
- cainxinth 3y agoWorks for dieting too. People hilariously underestimate how many calories they consume on a daily basis… until they have to record them all.
- eternityforest 3y agoDieting 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.
- rendall 3y agoI 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.
- DoreenMichele 3y agoA 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.
- rendall 3y agoAgreed. The thought is more about achieving insights like that. An example "Although you enjoy that horror series, you tend to sleep less well after watching it." These kinds of insights.
- 1letterunixname 3y agoPanopticon: that surveillance screen hanging at the entrance to Walmart
- mrkeen 3y agoThe "Hawthorne effect" is a myth, but what keeps the story going? https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17091208/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17091208/
- mikehall314 3y agoThe evidence on Hawthorne Effect is actually pretty poor https://www.mcgill.ca/oss/article/critical-thinking-history/one-last-centurys-most-influential-social-science-studies-pretty-bad https://www.mcgill.ca/oss/article/critical-thinking-history/...
- timcobb 3y agoSee also: “gaslighting”
- vrglvrglvrgl 3y ago[dead]
- guhcampos 3y agoThe Hawthorne effect is bullshit, but there's got to be a name for whatever effect we experience during white board interviews, where suddenly the awareness of being observed makes you stupid.