Question

Daniel believes that people perform better in the barbell curl, on average, if they are encouraged by a coach. He recruited 29 subjects to participate in an experiment and randomly assigned them into two groups. Daniel gave one group verbal encouragement during the exercise and was quiet during the exercise for the other group. He recorded the total number of barbell curls each subject was able to complete before setting the bar down.

Explain the purpose of random assignment in this experiment.

Answer 1

Answer:

Define two roughly identical sets.

Reduce the chance of bias.

Step-by-step explanation:

In this experiment, Daniel performs a random assignment in order to stablish two separate groups with roughly equivalent ability to do barbell curls. Two different treatments (verbal encouragement and silence) are then applied in order to verify for a cause and effect relationship. If the groups were not randomly assigned, then the experiment could be biased.