To be honest here, the whole statistics thing really does not excite me. Quite frankly, anything that involves numbers and calculations make me want to hide in the bathroom and cry. So, I found something that sparked my interest and has nothing to do with mathematical calculations. That is the Hawthorne Effect.

The Hawthorne effect occurs when people work harder and perform better when they know they are being watched as participants in an experiment. The subjects of the experiment may change their behavior when they know they are under surveillance, therefore skewing the results of the experiment. When this occurs, the results of the experiment do not truly convey honest information. Data may come as a result of being watched rather than a result of the manipulated variable.

The Hawthorne effect was first realized during a Harvard University experiment. Researchers were studying the effects of light on worker productivity, and found that the subjects of the experiment worked harder and were more productive because they knew they were being watched by others. The results came from the attention of the researchers rather than the independent variable. Super interesting stuff going on over here. It pretty much speaks to human nature...

P.S. I had a moment today when I realized I'm becoming the hindsight bias police. My dad was telling me that one of his coworkers asked him a technical question about a computer he was working on. My dad gave him the answer, and he was all like "Oh yeah, that's what I thought it was in the first place." Well  then, why did you ask in the first place? HINDSIGHT BIAS!!!!! Yeah, I'm that person.