Randomized controlled trial
A randomized controlled trial (or randomized control trial; RCT) is a type of scientific (often medical) experiment which aims to reduce bias when testing a new treatment. The people participating in the trial are randomly allocated to either the group receiving the treatment under investigation or to a group receiving standard treatment (or placebo treatment) as the control.
Quotes
[edit]- In an RCT, if we are lucky, we find the average difference in effect produced by the treatment in the population sampled. That does not tell us what the overall outcome on this effect in question would be from introducing the treatment in some particular way in some uncontrolled situation, even if we consider introducing it only in the very population sampled. For that we need a causal model. Even less does it tell us about “side-effects” of introducing the treatment, either from the treatment itself or from our way of implementing it. These too are crucial in calculating the costs and benefits of a proposed policy. Or, as Heckman argues, suppose one wants to predict what portion of the population will experience a given degree of improvement. RCTs do not deliver that kind of result. Again, we need a causal model.
- Nancy Cartwright, Hunting Causes and Using Them (2007), p. 238
- JD: [...] Do you think porn is bad for kids? ZS: [...] One of the challenges with answering this question and answering many of the questions right now around, sort of, “insert a particular type of digital media,” including social media, and that effect on kids, is that it’s really hard to run, sort of, causal studies on kids. JD: You’re not going to randomly assign kids to watch porn. ZS: Exactly. [...] As I understand the literature, studies have shown that adolescent exposure to online pornography is associated with things that we would consider to be normatively bad — things like body-image concerns, lower self-esteem, and increased acceptance of sort of aggressive sexual scripts, which may normalize sexual aggression more broadly in intimate contexts. However, again, these are purely correlative, and so drawing that sort of causal connection is hard, in general, but especially hard, like you said, when we’re not going to run, like, an RCT where we expose kids to pornography.
- Would You Give PornHub Your ID?: What happened when Louisiana tried to stop kids from watching porn, The Atlantic podcast for April 15, 2025 (host Jerusalem Demsas, guest Zeve Sanderson)
