Why is the random assignment of individuals to experimental and control groups important for an experiment?
A) It ensures that bias has been completely eliminated from the experiment.
B) It ensures that the results of the experiment will be statistically significant.
C) It ensures that the sampling error will have no effect on the results of the experiment.
D) It ensures that each group will better represent the population as a whole.

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

Random assignment helps to ensure that each group of participants in the experiment is representative of the population as a whole, reducing the potential for sampling bias. This is important for the external validity of the study, as it allows the results to be more generalizable to the population. While random assignment cannot completely eliminate all forms of bias, it is an important step in minimizing their impact on the study.

Why Is the Random Assignment of Individuals to Experimental and Control