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by psychoslave
844 days ago
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> But again, in the scenario under discussion, these are stipulated to be the same in both cases. That's not what I read. The two studies imply that they are conducted under two very different mindsets, which will most likely also mean people will receive a different human treatment. At this point, the statistics you will get out of it is almost ornamental. Sometime the most significant information to extract from a description is not the one that is the most obvious that is pointed at as the thing you can quantify and draw comparisons. |
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Even if the studies are conducted using the standard double blind protocol for medical and social science research, where the experimenters who have the different stopping criteria are not involved in any of the actual experimental activities? They don't do the random assignment of patients to treatment and control groups; they don't administer any of the actual treatments or placebos; they don't interact with the patients or the treatment personnel in any way during the experiment; and they don't inform anyone who is actually involved in the experimental activities of their intentions, regarding stopping criterion or anything else.
You're saying that even if all this is done--and, as I've said, this is standard procedure in medical and social science research--it is still impossible to prevent the experimenters' intentions--which aren't known to anyone else involved--from affecting the results? Remember that, as I've already said, the whole point of these double blind protocols is to prevent the experimenters' intentions from affecting the results. You're saying that's a fool's errand?