Double-blind RCT
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Definition
Randomized controlled trial where neither subjects nor researchers know group assignment; gold standard for causal inference.
Double-blind RCT in plain English
This is the most trustworthy way to test whether a treatment actually works. 'Randomized' means people are split into the treatment group and the fake-treatment (placebo) group by pure chance, so the groups start out fairly equal. 'Double-blind' means neither the patients nor the researchers running the study know who got the real thing — like a taste test where the cups are unlabeled so nobody's hopes or hunches can tilt the result. Because chance decides the groups and no one's expectations can sneak in, if the treatment group does better you can genuinely credit the treatment for causing it — which is why it's called the 'gold standard.'
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