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The Impact of Observers on People’s Behavior
- 1 Tongji University
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Abstract
The Hawthorne Experiment, proposed by Hawthorne, demonstrated the impact of observers on human behavior, known as the observer effect. Subsequent research on this effect has emerged in numerous forms and conducted analyses from both positive and negative aspects. These investigations suggest that the observer’s impact may be either positive or negative and needs to be eliminated. Beyond its initial grounding in psychological research, the influence of observers spans across various fields, signifying its pivotal importance. This paper explores how different observation positions and methods can yield varying impacts on people’s behavior. It aims to investigate how individuals’ behavior changes under diverse observation scenarios, such as with the mere presence of observers, having potential concerns of privacy infringement, and other contributing factors. The experiment records completion times and task performance for analysis. The study’s findings support the assertion that diverse observation positions and methods can lead to entirely different positive or negative influences. Potential limitations and future prospects are also outlined in this paper.
Keywords
People’s behavior, observer, Hawthone effect
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Cite this article
Zhang,T. (2024). The Impact of Observers on People’s Behavior. Lecture Notes in Education Psychology and Public Media,50,243-248.
Data availability
The datasets used and/or analyzed during the current study will be available from the authors upon reasonable request.
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Volume title: Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Social Psychology and Humanity Studies
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