The Hawthorne Effect
More or Less
BBC
4.6 • 3.7K Ratings
🗓️ 12 October 2013
⏱️ 10 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Tim Harford tells the story of the Hawthorne Experiments, one of the most famous social studies of the Twentieth Century. The finding – that workers are more productive if they are given attention - became known as the Hawthorne Effect. And he hears how the original data are now casting doubt on the legendary results. This programme was first broadcast on the BBC World Service.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Thank you for downloading from the BBC. |
| 0:04.0 | The details of our complete range of podcasts and our terms of use go to |
| 0:08.0 | BBCWorldService.com slash podcasts. |
| 0:12.0 | This is the short edition of Morales. |
| 0:16.0 | First broadcast on the BBC World Service. |
| 0:20.0 | Hello and welcome to more or less on the BBC World Service. |
| 0:24.0 | We're the programme about the numbers which surround us in the news and in life. |
| 0:28.0 | This week I thought I'd tell a story. |
| 0:32.0 | A story about one of the most famous and most misunderstood social experiments in the 20th century. |
| 0:38.0 | So are you sitting comfortably? Then I'll begin. |
| 0:48.0 | We're in 1920s Chicago. |
| 0:50.0 | One of the great American cities and a major new industrial centre. |
| 0:58.0 | The Hawthorne plant in the suburb of Sicily was making telecommunications equipment. |
| 1:06.0 | Then it became the venue for one of the most famous experiments in industrial history. |
| 1:10.0 | The National Academy of Sciences began an experiment to see how the level of lighting affected |
| 1:16.0 | how productive workers were. |
| 1:18.0 | The findings from this simple experiment have become legendary. |
| 1:22.0 | Because when fancy new lights were installed, the workers worked harder. |
| 1:26.0 | And when the lights were removed again, the workers worked harder. |
| 1:30.0 | Nine more years of research followed and the same results. |
| 1:34.0 | Length and work breaks, the workers worked harder. |
| 1:36.0 | Shorten work breaks, the workers worked harder. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of BBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.