The Hawthorne Effect: People change their behavior simply because they know they're being observed. Attention itself influences performance.
Article: Joanne Yatvin: Let More Teachers Re-Invent the Wheel, Or Why We Don’t Need Standardization
Why do we suddenly become more productive when someone is watching?
The Hawthorne Effect was discovered in the 1920s factory studies, where Researchers found that the workers' productivity improved simply because they knew they were being studied. The effect suggests that people tend to change their behavior due to awareness of being watched.
We are social creatures, and being watched oftentimes matters more than we think.
And in educator Joanne Yatvin's words:
"When people believe they are important in a project, anything works, and, conversely, when they don’t believe they are important, nothing works."
Hawthorne Effect can be found almost everywhere. Supervisors improve performance by showing interest. Teachers see temporary gains when students know evaluation is coming.
In more modern settings, people also apply this effect to productivity monitoring software to increase performance. It also explains why some people perform better in public commitments or accountability groups. The act of being seen changes how we act.
However, there's a catch. The effect is often temporary. Once the novelty of observation wears off, behavior tends to return to baseline. Unfortunately, sustainable improvement requires more than just attention.
This also reminds me of the Elevator Mirrors Psychology.