What's the name of the phenomena that means that observing something may change it?

Question

It may be more a social sciences or epistomology type of word. Thought it was one, fairly long word. So this question may not be correctly categorised. Sorry about the confusion. I'm not sure if I can move it.

Answer 1

You may be thinking of the Hawthorne effect. Named after the Hawthorne works where a series of studies were done on worker productivity. It was found that whatever changes were made (like changing the lighting) productivity improved. Because this occurred even when the change was to put everything back to the way it was, it was suggested that it was the mere fact that the workers were being observed that resulted in the change. There has been A LOT of discussion, disagreement, and parsing of the phenomenon and the debate is ongoing. However, back in Psy 101, we learned that the act of observing may be an instrument of change and that this was known as the Hawthorne effect. Check out Wikipedia for more than you really want to know about it.

Answer 2

I suppose that if you watch your own behavior closely, while thinking of your reasons for what you do, you might do things differently then you would on impulse or whim.

There's a physical principle called uncertainty in which an observation of a particle necessarily changes it's position and momentum, so that you can never be quite sure where anything is. The strange thing about it is: the universe itself is never quite sure where anything is. Reality is not quite exact about place and momentum, or energy and time. Instead of classical mechanical exactitude, we have conservation laws and probability.

Answer 3

Observing ego.