Introduction to Experimental Design and Ethics

What you’ll learn to do: how to identify variables within an experiment and collect reliable data

a man driving a taxi

Does adding seat belts to cars reduce the proportion of injuries in car accidents? To determine if this was true, experiments were done with cars and crash test dummies. Experiments that are conducted using good elements of experimental design allow us to draw conclusions about cause and effect. This section will introduce you to several concepts related to experimental design including random assignment, control groups, blinding, and the use of placebos.