[colinmorelli]

I'm not exactly sure how this relates to my comment above. An analysis of an airline crash and a study are not the same thing.

As it relates to study design, controlling for set and setting are part of the methodology. For example, most drug studies are double-blinded so that neither patients nor clinicians are aware of whether the patient is getting the drug or not, to reduce or eliminate any placebo effect (i.e. to control for the "set"/mental state of those involved in the study).

There are certainly some cases in which it's effectively impossible to control for these factors (i.e. psychedelics). That's not what's really being discussed here, though.

An airline crash is an n of 1 incident, and not the same as a designed study.