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Back in the 1920s, a group of efficiency engineers wanted to figure out if they could increase factory worker efficiency by improving their working conditions. So they went to a Western Electric factory called Hawthorne Works and did some improvements to the lighting and various other aspects. As expected, the workers’ efficiency increased.

However, when they returned the factory to its original conditions and observed performance again, the efficiency increased again.

This study has become pretty well known in the social sciences for describing the “observer’s paradox,” the phenomenon wherein the act of observing an event changes the unfolding of the event itself. In this case, the fact of engineers observing the workers increased their efficiency regardless of what changes were made to the environment.

Now, could you use the Hawthorne Effect to your advantage?

Creating content for your business is like having an ever-present efficiency engineer watching over you. If you felt that the work you were doing would be seen by anyone online, it might change the very way you do your work in the first place.

This is another result of the meta-value of content.