During the late 1920s and early 1930s, a team of sociologists conducted a series of studies at the Western Electric Company in the Hawthorne section of Chicago. Led by Elton Mayo, the researchers concluded that the factory workers changed their behavior when they realized they were being studied.
Mayo’s finding is widely known as the Hawthorne Effect. But wait! A recent vocabulary in context question reported that several researchers have been unable to SUBSTANTIATE or validate the Hawthorne Effect. This finding surprised me, since I wrote about the Hawthorne Effect in my Sociology book and regularly taught it in my classes.
However, the appearance of SUBSTANTIATE as an answer on a vocabulary in context question did not surprise me. Pay special attention to SUBSTANTIATE. SAT test writers have used it as both a correct and an incorrect answer for a number of vocabulary in context questions.
SUBSTANTIATE – to provide evidence to support or prove something; confirm; validate