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Was there Really a Hawthorne Effect at the Hawthorne Plant? An Analysis of the Original Illumination Experiments

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  • Steven D. Levitt
  • John A. List

Abstract

The "Hawthorne effect," a concept familiar to all students of social science, has had a profound influence both on the direction and design of research over the past 75 years. The Hawthorne effect is named after a landmark set of studies conducted at the Hawthorne plant in the 1920s. The first and most influential of these studies is known as the "Illumination Experiment." Both academics and popular writers commonly summarize the results as showing that every change in light, even those that made the room dimmer, had the effect of increasing productivity. The data from the illumination experiments, however, were never formally analyzed and were thought to have been destroyed. Our research has uncovered these data. We find that existing descriptions of supposedly remarkable data patterns prove to be entirely fictional. There are, however, hints of more subtle manifestations of a Hawthorne effect in the original data.

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Bibliographic Info

Paper provided by National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc in its series NBER Working Papers with number 15016.

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Date of creation: May 2009
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Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:15016

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  1. John List & David Reiley, 2008. "Field experiments," Artefactual Field Experiments 00091, The Field Experiments Website.
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Cited by:
  1. Oriana Bandiera & Iwan Baranky & Imran Rasul, 2011. "Field Experiments with Firms," STICERD - Economic Organisation and Public Policy Discussion Papers Series 028, Suntory and Toyota International Centres for Economics and Related Disciplines, LSE.
  2. Michael Kosfeld & Susanne Neckermann, 2011. "Getting More Work for Nothing? Symbolic Awards and Worker Performance," American Economic Journal: Microeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 3(3), pages 86-99, August.
  3. Englmaier, Florian & Roider, Andreas & Sunde, Uwe, 2012. "The Role of Salience in Performance Schemes: Evidence from a Field Experiment," IZA Discussion Papers 6448, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA).
  4. Erik Hurst & Geng Li & Benjamin Pugsley, 2010. "Are Household Surveys Like Tax Forms: Evidence from Income Underreporting of the Self Employed," NBER Working Papers 16527, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
  5. Benda, Wim G.G. & Engels, Tim C.E., 2011. "The predictive validity of peer review: A selective review of the judgmental forecasting qualities of peers, and implications for innovation in science," International Journal of Forecasting, Elsevier, vol. 27(1), pages 166-182, January.
  6. Duvendack, Maren, 2010. "Smoke and Mirrors: Evidence of Microfinance Impact from an Evaluation of SEWA Bank in India," MPRA Paper 24511, University Library of Munich, Germany.
  7. Neckermann, Susanne & Cueni, Reto & Frey, Bruno S., 2012. "Awards at work," ZEW Discussion Papers 12-004, ZEW - Zentrum für Europäische Wirtschaftsforschung / Center for European Economic Research.

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