Review Article
Systematic review of the Hawthorne effect: New concepts are needed to study research participation effects

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclinepi.2013.08.015Get rights and content
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Abstract

Objectives

This study aims to (1) elucidate whether the Hawthorne effect exists, (2) explore under what conditions, and (3) estimate the size of any such effect.

Study Design and Setting

This systematic review summarizes and evaluates the strength of available evidence on the Hawthorne effect. An inclusive definition of any form of research artifact on behavior using this label, and without cointerventions, was adopted.

Results

Nineteen purposively designed studies were included, providing quantitative data on the size of the effect in eight randomized controlled trials, five quasiexperimental studies, and six observational evaluations of reporting on one's behavior by answering questions or being directly observed and being aware of being studied. Although all but one study was undertaken within health sciences, study methods, contexts, and findings were highly heterogeneous. Most studies reported some evidence of an effect, although significant biases are judged likely because of the complexity of the evaluation object.

Conclusion

Consequences of research participation for behaviors being investigated do exist, although little can be securely known about the conditions under which they operate, their mechanisms of effects, or their magnitudes. New concepts are needed to guide empirical studies.

Keywords

Hawthorne effect
Reactivity
Observation
Research methods
Research participation
Assessment

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Ethics statement: Ethical approval was not required for this study.

Competing interests: No authors have any competing interests.

Authors' contributions: J.M. had the idea for the study, led on study design, data collection, and data analyses, and wrote the first draft of the report. J.W. assisted with data collection and analyses. All three authors participated in discussions about the design of this study, contributed to revisions of the report, and approved the submission of the final report.

This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/).