I remember when I was in College I had to create a statics experiment. I picked a place on campus where people always cut across the grass and was going to count how many people cut across the grass in a given time, and then the next day put a “Keep off The Grass’ sign and count how many people cut across the grass. My theory was that more people would cut across the grass because they were told not to do it.
Well as typically happened when I was in college I put it off, till the last minute. But being the superb bullshitter that I am, I made the results up, faked some data and got an A. I often wonder what the real results would have been if I hadn’t been drinking and instead ran the experiment.