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Randomized Experiment

Definition

A randomized experiment is a study design where participants are randomly assigned to different treatment groups. It allows researchers to establish cause-and-effect relationships between variables by controlling for confounding factors.

Analogy

Think about baking cookies with two different types of flour - one regular and one gluten-free. To determine if there's any difference in taste between them, you divide your friends into two groups randomly. One group gets cookies made with regular flour while the other gets cookies made with gluten-free flour. By randomly assigning people to groups, you can confidently conclude whether there's any effect on taste due to flour type.

Related terms

Control Group: The control group in a randomized experiment does not receive any treatment or intervention and serves as a baseline for comparison.

Treatment Group: The treatment group in a randomized experiment receives the specific treatment or intervention being studied.

Placebo Effect: The placebo effect refers to the phenomenon where participants show improvement or changes in response to receiving an inactive substance or treatment, simply because they believe it is effective.