If you’re a fan of either the Arizona or Arizona State men’s basketball teams and you want your squad to win Thursday at Wells Fargo Arena, stop looking.
The Hawthorne effect has jammed up each of these programs this season, leading to wild swings in performance.
The phenomenon also is known as the “observer effect,” and the short version is that the act of watching something changes its behavior.
In sports, it’s not necessarily a negative, though the Wildcats and Sun Devils don’t seem to know that. It's OK, though, they can turn to the example of a guy who knows how to dance, and golf, like nobody's watching.