Changing the results By Observation
In 1923, Thomas Edison (yes, THAT Thomas Edison) was chairing the 'Committee on the Relation of Quality and Quantity of Illumination to Efficiency in the Industries'. Various reports from had suggested that better lighting might increase productivity, so a researcher called Deming went with his team to test the theory at Western Electric's Hawthorne Plant at Cicero, Illinois.
The illumination experiment was conducted from 1924 to 1927. The purpose was to determine the effect of light variations on worker productivity. The experiment ran in two rooms : the experiment room, in which workers went about their workday under various light levels; and the control room, in which workers did their tasks under normal conditions. The hypothesis was that as the light level was increased in the experiment room, productivity would increase.
However, when the intensity of light was increased in the experiment room, researchers found that productivity had improved in both rooms. The light level in the experiment room was then decreased, and the results were the same: increased productivity in both rooms. Productivity only began to decrease in the experiment room when the light level was reduced to about the level of moonlight, which made it hard to see.
Now this this result was further questioned, and more studies were conducted, but to keep the article short and simple, here's the small summary :
It is the novelty of being research subjects and the increased attention from such could lead to temporary increases in workers' productivity
i.e., when you tell workers they are part of a special study to see what might improve productivity, and then you do something... They improve their productivity
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This phenomenon that we observed, where individuals modify an aspect of their behavior in response to their awareness of being observed was then called Hawthorne Effect.
Sources
On a good note, Bad Science is genuinely one of the most interesting, eye-opening books I've ever read. So this is definitely a recommendation. I've attached the Amazon link to buy the book