A few years ago I heard about something called the 'Hawthorn Effect' but
forgot the name until today when I heard it again, described as a way a
person or group could bias the outcome of a decision or course of action
merely by their presence. In some ways it ties in with quantum
mechanics, the Heisenberg Uncertainty principle as a sort of macro
effect which influences peoples actions;
-----------------------
http://www.cs.stedwards.edu/~wright/text/quantum.html#uncertain
Changes caused by the act of measurement make it impossible to know
everything about a particle with infinite precision.
-----------------------
http://www.sss.org/~bthorn/jargon/H/heisenbug.html
heisenbug /hi:'zen-buhg/ n.
[from Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle in quantum physics] A bug that
disappears or alters its behavior when one attempts to probe or isolate
it.
(This usage is not even particularly fanciful; the use of a debugger
sometimes
alters a program's operating environment significantly enough that buggy
code, such as that which relies on the values of uninitialized memory,
behaves quite differently.) Antonym of Bohr bug; see also mandelbug,
schroedinbug. In C, nine out of ten heisenbugs result from uninitialized
auto
variables, fandango on core phenomena (esp. lossage related to
corruption
of the malloc arena) or errors that smash the stack.
-----------------------
http://www.cyborganic.com/People/gizard/Tibud/Mad/mad13.html
Physics tells us that for an electron to be observed, a photon must be
bounced off it. This is duly detected by a microscope--but then the
photon causes the electron to recoil in a direction which cannot be
known to us without making another observation. Thus, an electron cannot
be observed without changing its state.
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This biasing appears to be due to people being aware that they are being
watched and thus change their normal responses to CYA..<g>..
It intrigues me because of the sparcity of reports relating to new
claims in the free energy and alt science arenas over the past couple of
years.
If they are out there, they either aren't reporting themselves or are
perceiving the gradual change in peoples expectationgs and willingness
to continually believe and sponsor ongoing claims without proof.
Perhaps this 'Hawthorn Effect' is reducing the eagerness of free energy
claimants to come forward because people are finally becoming ever more
skeptical, demanding PROOF and less subject to taking people at their
word when claims are made.
Highly suspect because the claimant refuses to let it be tested,
duplicated independently or otherwise provide sufficient proof of
principle information that others may verify and then come forward to
support the claimants since there is NOW proof.
If that is the case, then I am very pleased, since we do need to stop
chasing our tails and following every bouncing flashlight beam or static
spark as a working, useable device, willing to buy bogus plans, willing
to buy 'franchises' for products that never come, willing to buy
machines that don't work as advertised and saddest of all, willing to
believe and trust people and their claims at face value....
I found this Hawthorn Effect concept intriguing so looked it up and
found;
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http://www.polson.com.au/articles/jun-96.html
In the famous Hawthorn experiment, researchers were trying to prove that
working conditions, such as good lighting, had a direct effect on
productivity. As we now know, they found that productivity improved no
matter what visible change was made. They deduced that people perform
better when they feel cared for and when something is being done to help
them.
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an example of biasing opinion by taking advantage of the Hawthorn
effect;
http://www.cas.psu.edu/docs/casadmin/HR/strategy1.html
Using Email two weeks before the conference, the committee sent a letter
of request to all randomly selected attendees to ask if they would agree
to participate in the evaluation. With this commitment, the committee
felt they would take the evaluation seriously, and complete and return
it on time. This technique worked well as the findings demonstrate.
The negative side of this technique from a scientific perspective, is
that we may have increased these attendees' interest in the conference
and influenced their evaluation, a bias call the Hawthorn effect.
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http://www.dcs.napier.ac.uk/marble/Usability/Observe.html
Intrusion, Obstruction - Observers should also be aware that their
presence might change the behaviour of the people they are observing
(the Hawthorn Effect). Also, any personel or equipment used in
observing, should not physically impede normal procedures.
----------------
using the Hawthorn effect to deter undesirable behavior with CCTV;
http://www.bccla.org/positions/police/99videosurveillance.html
----------------
learning in a polysynchronous collaborative environment using virtual
tools and how the hawthorn effect (big brother) influences the outcomes;
http://noisey.oise.utoronto.ca/jason/dissertation-proposal.html
Other issues relating to research into online learning are 'Hawthorn
Effect'
due to the novelty of the environment, and particularly 'Big Brother
Syndrome' where subjects respond in an abnormal manner because they
know they are being observed (Paul Rosenfeld et al., 1996). The subject
will know that they are being continually absolvers, and in order to
ensure a
sense of privacy and a clear division between the research and their
evaluation, particular steps (describe in sections 6.x) have been
undertaken
to mitigate the 'Big Brother' effect.
-- Jerry Wayne Decker - jdecker@keelynet.com http://www.keelynet.com from an Art to a Science Voice : (214)324-8741 - FAX : (214)324-3501 KeelyNet - PO BOX 870716 Mesquite - Republic of Texas - 75187------------------------------------------------------------- To leave this list, email <listserver@keelynet.com> with the body text: leave Interact list archives and on line subscription forms are at http://keelynet.com/interact/ -------------------------------------------------------------