Posted on 01/10/2013 6:17:03 PM PST by null and void
Edm,
Yes, I know what a double blind test is and the reasons for having them very well. I commented that it really isn’t necessary for a double blind test to be done for aspartamine in your comment to null and void. A single blind would suffice if it is set up correctly. The adminstrator of the test does not necessarily unconciously communicate what they are giving.
Tests have to be double blinded because the person administering the treatment has expectations about its effectiveness, and telegraphs those expectations to the study subject without being aware that they are doing so. This is why, in reports on drug studies, a paragraph of the Materials and Methods section is devoted to describing the randomization method used. In an ideal study, no one knows which pill is which.
Even if null and void were to ask a friend to help him truly test the effects of aspartame without telling the friend why, the friend would still be curious and very likely would act differently on the days that he was giving n&v the aspartame capsules.
OOPS!!! SORRY!! I was thinking of another freeper
Double blind tests are necessary to meet the standard of scientific proof wherever the subject’s knowledge of the test can alter the results.
The aspartame-horrible symptoms connection is one of those cases.
That doesn’t mean the results are wrong, only that they don’t meet a particular set of standards to be fully accepted.
Like a correlation study, tens of thousands of anecdotal reports does not rise to the level of proof necessary to establish something as a scientific fact.
Compare to the hundreds of recent sightings of mountain lions (puma, if you prefer) in New England and Atlantic states. Despite numerous eye-witness accounts and a smattering of photographs, and despite the fact that these areas are known “former” range of, and can therefor support, these cats, State Fish & Game and federal agencies deny their existence.
They will continue to deny until either one of their own “discovers” them, or there is a dead body, either of a cat or a child taken by one.
In the mean while no hunter dares shoot one for fear of spending significant and very expensive court time defending themselves from charges of shooting an endangered species that officially doesn’t even exist!
No problem, it’s the curse of a gender-neutral screen name...
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