Hawthorne and Rosenthal

From Menletter April 2009

By Tim Baehr

Cause and Effect

From 1924 to 1932 a series of experiments was performed at the Hawthorne Works in Cicero, Illinois. This was a manufacturing facility for Western Electric, a company that made telephones and other consumer goods.

A selected group of employees was given better lighting. Productivity went up. The lights were dimmed. Productivity went . . . up! Although the research was primarily about lighting, other changes were tried. In each case, no matter what the change was, productivity almost always went up, at least for a short time. A later researcher called this the Hawthorne Effect. Although there are many interpretations of what was really going on, the common take is that the workers were responding to being communicated with and paid attention to - even if the change was to take away a previous benefit.

More than three decades later, Robert Rosenthal and his associate told teachers that certain of their students were brighter than their previous work might have indicated. These students, the experimenters said, were ready to blossom. The students improved, even though they were no different from other students in the class. The phenomenon, dubbed the Rosenthal Effect, was that behavior could be changed by changing expectations.

The most recent invoking of the Hawthorne Effect to explain behavioral phenomena has been in the treatment of autistic children. While few of the 100 or so treatments for autism have been shown conclusively effective, parents report improvements for many of them: their children become more interactive, more alive. Sydney Speisel, a pediatrician who treats autistic kids, thinks that this may be an example of the Hawthorne Effect. People, including autistic kids, respond well to attention and interaction, and to the notion that they are worthy of attention and interaction. (See http://www.slate.com/id/2215076/ for details.)

The Rosenthal Effect may have been active too, in the sense that positive expectations change our interactions with people, and they respond accordingly.

The sets of experiments at Hawthorne and those done by Rosenthal may feel like clinical or even cynical manipulation, but I think it's worth looking for some underlying wisdom and some applications in our daily lives.

Attention Must Be Paid

What would happen, for instance, if we paid more attention to our partners, our kids, our parents, our friends, our colleagues, our bosses, the people who work for us? According to the Hawthorne experiments, it almost doesn't matter what the other incidentals of our behavior may be, as long as we are communicating and paying attention. What form would the attention take? How about really listening without interjecting an agenda of our own? How about noticing body language and tone of voice and trying to discern discontent or contentment? How about asking more questions instead of making assumptions or being eager to jump in with answers?

Managing expectations can also be helpful. What if, over the long haul, we expected the best of friends, family, and colleagues? Sure, they might disappoint us occasionally, and we should express that disappointment. But maybe we shouldn't then project that disappointment into the future, always looking for the worst. Self-fulfilling prophecies can work to the good as well as to the bad.

Neither of these activities needs to be manipulative or even directed cynically at other people. In fact, we can choose to communicate, pay attention, and have high expectations as part of how and who we choose to be. We can change ourselves for our own sake, without seeking to change others.

Oh, and let's not forget ourselves as recipients of our own attention and expectations. How would our lives change if we really, really paid attention to ourselves? How would our lives change if we really, really expected the best of ourselves? Paying attention could consist simply of spending a few quiet minutes alone each day and listening to our thoughts. Raising expectations could consist of identifying one or two small things we know we could improve - diet, exercise, personal relationships, learning new things, or whatever.

All this doesn't mean that we can cure toxic situations or relationships in which a true pathology exists. But for everyday relationships, the approach - communication, attention, best expectations - comes down to commonplace compassion toward others and toward ourselves. Well, if it were commonplace, the world would be in a lot better shape.