Question

What’s Wrong with This Experiment? Identify the most critical flaw in the experiments described below

and explain how it could be fixed.

1). 100 smokers who wanted to quit smoking were randomly assigned to two groups. One group was

given nicotine gum to chew whenever they felt the urge to smoke. The other group was given nothing.

After four weeks the groups were compared on the percentage of people who had been successful at

not smoking.

2). An educational researcher asks students in a college US history class whether or not they used the

textbook study guide in preparing for an exam. He then compares the grades of those who did to those

who did not.

Answer 1

(1)

The most critical flaw in the experiment is: The natural attitude of a person in quitting a bad habit is not the same for all people. Some people are weak minded so that even with small urge to smoke, they will start smoking. Some others are very strong minded, so that they will stick to their decision to quit smoking even when strong urge comes.

(2)

The most critical flaw in the experiment is: Response bias. Since the researcher asks the students openly whether they used guide, the students will mostly respond saying that they never guide and the Professor's lectures were self sufficient just to get good name from the Professor.