Hello folks,
I'm trying to recall the name of a study that went like this:
Business managers were trying to improve something in the physical building of the office. Either lighting or layout or something else. They brought in a team to study the effect on employees. They switched from condition A to B, and found a large improvement in employees' mood and productivity. Then, to be sure of the effect, they changed back from B to A. They, again, confusingly, found an improvement in employees' mood and productivity. To try again, they switched from A to B, and again found a yet higher improvement.
The conclusion of the study was that there was a confounding positive effect on employees of regularly asking them how they were doing, which naturally increased as the results of the study became more confusing.