Etymology

Hawthorne effect

Today it means: A phenomenon whereby a change in the behavior of a subject being studied is an effect of the change itself or the fact of being observed rather than the nature of the change in question. Full definition →

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The story

Coined by American social psychologist John R. P. French in 1953 after a study conducted by Elton Mayo in 1924-1932 at the Hawthorne Works, a large factory complex in Cicero, Illinois (formerly Hawthorne).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.