Understanding the Hawthorne effect

Understanding the Hawthorne effect.

Researchers investigated the effectiveness of patient controlled analgesia for patients presenting to emergency departments with pain from traumatic injuries. A randomised controlled trial with a parallel groups study design was used. The control treatment was usual care, with analgesia titrated by nurses according to hospital guidelines. The participants were patients aged 18-75 years presenti...

Hawthorne Effect

The Hawthorne effect and energy awareness.

The feeling of being observed or merely participating in an experiment can affect individuals' behavior. Referred to as the Hawthorne effect, this inconsistently observed phenomenon can both provide insight into individuals' behavior and confound the interpretation of experimental manipulations. Here, we pursue both topics in examining how the Hawthorne effect emerges in a large field experimen...

Usability Studies and the Hawthorne Effect

This paper provides a brief review of the Hawthorne effect, a discussion of how this effect relates to usability studies, and help for practitioners in defending their studies against criticisms made on the basis of this effect.

The Hawthorne Effect: a randomised, controlled trial

BACKGROUND The 'Hawthorne Effect' may be an important factor affecting the generalisability of clinical research to routine practice, but has been little studied. Hawthorne Effects have been reported in previous clinical trials in dementia but to our knowledge, no attempt has been made to quantify them. Our aim was to compare minimal follow-up to intensive follow-up in participants in a placebo...