Discussion on Statistical Methods I - Investigation | STAT 251, Study notes of Data Analysis & Statistical Methods

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INVESTIGATION 1.4.2 - Have a Nice Trip (cont.) Discussion (from your text, page 39): The primary goal of randomization is to create groups that have sumilar characteristics/distributions prior to imposing the explanatory variable. © Thus randomization is meant to equalize the effects of any potential confounding variables between the groups, creating groups that overall differ only on the explanatory variable imposed. Note that the ‘balancing out' applies well to variables that can be observed (such as gender and height) and variables that may not have been recorded (such as age or walking speed) or that cannot be observed (such as a hidden gene). Although you can force variables like gender or heigh to be equally distributed between the control and treatment groups, the virtue of randomization is that it balances out variables that we might not have thought of ahead of time or variables that we might not be able to see or control.