Experimental Studies Utilize Blinding to Prevent Researchers from Biasing Their

question 10

Essay

Experimental studies utilize blinding to prevent researchers from biasing their measurements of the patients. But can they guess the treatment? In a study of a drug intervention, clinicians who were "blinded" were asked to guess what treatment their patients received. Data from that experiment are shown below. Assume that these data are indicative of the population of these treatments. ​ a) If a subject is selected at random, what is the probability that the researcher correctly guesses the treatment? b) If a randomly chosen subject received the standard treatment, what is the probability that the researcher correctly guesses the treatment?

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Definitions:

Doomsday Machine

A hypothetical device or concept often associated with nuclear warfare, designed to automatically trigger an apocalyptic retaliation if a certain attack is detected.

Spurious Information

Information that appears to be valid and relevant to a decision or analysis but is actually false and misleading.

Negative Framing Effect

A psychological phenomenon where people make decisions based on the presentation of negative outcomes rather than positive ones, even when both presentations convey the same information.

Smooth Consumption

A concept in economics where individuals prefer to have a stable consumption pattern over time, smoothing out the highs and lows in their spending and consumption.