The Hawthorne Effect

Response: I am a High School teacher, so relate many of the Hawthorne Effect statements to those that I see all the time, high school students. This effect is specifically true for students who worry about how they are being rated and graded by their teachers. I also warn the students that I read lips, because my mother was deaf for much of my life, and that I am very good at following many conversations in the classroom at one time, again, because my mother was deaf and I had to be able to let her know what was going on around her. Even with this knowledge, the students tend to act differently when being "watched" then when they are not aware or not being watched. Cell phone use increases, talking increases, and general lack of being or looking busy is more prevalent. When the students become aware that they are being watched, they either shyly smile and acknowledge the infraction or hide or put things away, pretending it wasn't happening, neither of which is very effective.
I did think that it should be mentioned that the Hawthorne Effect was revealed during a commissioned study of the effects of different lightings in the
So many policemen are now behaving better now that they are being recorded, and the perpetrators of a crime respond better to the police on interrogation or arrest. The data is starting to be collected and shows that in Rialto, California, after officers used cameras for a year, citizen complaints against officers were down by 60%. Similar results were found in Mesa, Arizona (complaints down 75%) and Nampa, Idaho (complaints down 24%). Much of the research I found just assumed that people being watched would be better behaved than those not being watched. I was surprised to learn that most of the City of London has camera coverage, one camera for every 32 UK citizens. Rates for crime in London are down slightly, but conviction rates are