OBSERVE THIS!

What is the actor-observer effect? Let's see what this psychological phenomenon is, related to our way of seeing ourselves and others.

Observation studies are used in health care research, e.g. to explore behaviors of patients or health care professionals in hospitals. A methodologica…

The national security deference debate has reached a stalemate. Those favoring extensive deference to executive branch national security decisions celebrate the limited role courts have played in reviewing those policies. The executive, they contend, is constitutionally charged with such decisions and structurally better suited than the judiciary to make them. Those who bemoan such deference fear for individual rights and an imbalance in the separation of powers. Yet both sides assume that the courts’ role is minimal. Both sides are wrong. This Article shows why. While courts rarely intervene in national security disputes, the Article demonstrates that they nevertheless play a significant role in shaping executive branch security policies. Call this the “observer effect.” Physics teaches us that observing a particle alters how it behaves. Through psychology, we know that people act differently when they are aware that someone is watching them. In the national security context, the executive is highly sensitive to looming judicial oversight in the national security arena, and establishes or alters policies in an effort to avert direct judicial involvement. By identifying and analyzing the observer effect, this Article provides a more accurate positive account of national security deference, without which reasoned normative judgments cannot be made. This Article makes another contribution to the literature as well. By illustrating how the uncertain, but lurking, threat of judicial decisions spurs increasingly rights–protective policy decisions by the executive, it poses a rejoinder to those who are skeptical that law constrains the executive.

The observer effect in relation to medication communication seemed to be small and temporary in this specific hospital setting, among other things as staff and patients were used to extra persons (e.g. students) being around. Medication communication in hospital settings is a complex behavior, and a …

This research provides evidence that a safety observation process can function to increase safe postural behavior of observers. Thus, the implementation of such a process may contribute to the prevention of musculoskeletal disorders and related costs in the workplace.

Over at The New Republic’s Security States blog, I have a new essay up entitled, “Courts Influence National Security Without Doing a Single Thing.”  It begins: One of the most persistent fights in

During a 5-week study of the Nihoa Millerbird and Nihoa Finch, we censused birds using these techniques: two line transect methods, a variable-distance circular plot method, and spot-mapping of territories (millerbirds only). Densities derived from these methods varied greatly. Due to differences in behavior, it appeared that the two species reacted differently to the observer. Millerbirds appeared to be attracted to a moving observer, perhaps to forage on insects; finches appeared to be attracted to a stationary observer in order to feed on seabird eggs temporarily abandoned during the count. Although these behaviors may be unusual, they dramatically demonstrate that no single census method will suffice for all species. The method that assures the least observer effect will provide the most accurate population estimate.

It is January 3, 2019. The House of Representatives has just come under Democrat control on the 13th day of the government shutdown. It passes a bill allocating $1.3 billion dollars for border secu…

By Emma Derr, Max Kampelman Fellow and Robert Hand, Senior Policy Advisor The U.S. election system has passed the “extreme stress test,” according to the head of the 2020 general election observation mission organized by the Organization for Cooperation and Security in Europe. International observers representing 39 OSCE participating States presented their preliminary conclusions at a press conference on November 4, 2020 in Washington D.C.

A glossary for teaching or research purposes only.

Collaborative scientific research using data from NSF's IceCube Neutrino Observatory in Antarctica helps answer century-old astrophysics question