Rankings and Reactivity: How Public Measures Recreate Social Worlds

2007/07/01 by Wendy Nelson Espeland, Wendy Nelson Espeland, Michael Sauder · 2,340 citations
Business, Management and Accounting · Medicine · Psychology · Social Sciences · #Accountability #Economics #Judicial and Constitutional Studies #Law #Law in Society and Culture #Lens (geology) #Medicine #Political Influence and Corporate Strategies #Political science #Positive economics #Psychology #Public relations #Reactivity (psychology) #Social psychology #Sociology #Through-the-lens metering #Transparency (behavior) #Unintended consequences

paper · open access · doi:10.1086/517897

published in American Journal of Sociology 113(1), 1-40 (University of Chicago Press)

openalex publication_date 2007/07/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/04

Abstract

Recently, there has been a proliferation of measures responding to demands for accountability and transparency. Using the example of media rankings of law schools, this article argues that the methodological concept of reactivity - the idea that people change their behavior in reaction to being evaluated, observed, or measured- offers a useful lens for disclosing how these measures effect change. A framework is proposed for investigating the consequences, both intended and unintended, of public measures. The article first identifies two mechanisms, self-fulfilling prophecy and commensuration, that induce reactivity and then distinguishes patterns of effects produced by reactivity. This approach demonstrates how these increasingly fateful public measures change expectations and permeate institutions, suggesting why it is important for scholars to investigate the impact of these measures more systematically.

Citations

• On the social psychology of the psychological experiment: With particular reference to demand characteristics and their implications.

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