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Manufacturers of a new pain medication designed a double-blind experiment to test their new formula to see if
sufferers of migraines feel relief after taking it. A total of 80 patients with migraines were recruited for the study.
The researchers asked each patient to rate their pain on a scale of 1 (mild) to 10 (severe). Then the researchers
randomly assigned each migraine sufferer either the new pain medication or a placebo. One hour later, each
patient was again asked to rate the level of pain from 1 to 10. Why was it important for this experiment to be
double-blind?
If the subjects knew they were not receiving the active treatment, they might quit the experiment.
It was important for both the subjects and the researchers to know which treatment was being assigned to the
subjects so they could see if the improvement of migraine pain was due to the new medication or to the
expectation of getting better.
O It was important for the subjects to know if they were receiving an active treatment so they could keep track of
any possible side effects. If the researchers knew which subjects received which treatments, they might have
treated one group of subjects differently from the other group.
If subjects knew they were receiving an active treatment, researchers would not have known if any
improvement was due to the new medication or to the expectation of feeling better. If the researchers knew
which subjects received which treatments, they might have treated one group of subjects differently from the
other group.