Observer effect

In experimental research, the term observer effect (also see Hawthorne effect) refers to changes that the act of observing will make on the phenomenon being observed. It has application in many fields of scientific inquiry, and may refer specifically to:

• Observer effect (information technology), the impact of observing a process while it is running
• Observer effect (physics), the impact of observing a physical system
• Observer effect (psychology), how people change their behavior when aware of being watched

It may also refer to:

• Observer Effect, an episode of Star Trek: Enterprise, named after this effect

It is sometimes conflated with:

• Heisenberg's uncertainty principle
• Actor-observer bias

See also

• Schrödinger's cat

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