When you know you are being watched, your behavior changes, for better or worse [1] [2].
But it's true it is a bit different for BigCo. Not only they watch, they also have an active role by modifying what you see - e.g. the ads and news they display [3].
Does this qualify as "outsized impact" or do you want moar?
> Descriptions of the well-known and remarkable effect, which was discovered in the context of research conducted at the Hawthorne Western Electric plant, turned out to be fictional.
> Workers experienced a series of lighting changes in which productivity was said to increase with almost any change in the lighting. This turned out not to be true.
> ...a series of changes in work structure were implemented (e.g., changes in rest periods) in a group of five women. But this was a methodologically poor, uncontrolled study that did not permit any firm conclusions to be drawn.[4]
> This interpretation was dubbed "the Hawthorne effect," although the data does not support that view.
The original study was indeed subpar, but follow-up research research confirms the intuition that you are not the same when you know someone (something?) is watching you, as the "See Also" section demonstrates.
But it's true it is a bit different for BigCo. Not only they watch, they also have an active role by modifying what you see - e.g. the ads and news they display [3].
Does this qualify as "outsized impact" or do you want moar?
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawthorne_effect
[2] https://www.harvardmagazine.com/2017/01/the-watchers
|3] https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/oct/02/facebook-...