> 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.

I guess that's par for the course.

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.