why is it important that participants in a study do not know the hypothesis?

Question

and wht kind of a study is it called?

Answer 1

placebo effect

The term placebo effect (as distinct from the more correct term placebo response) was introduced by T. C. Graves in 1920 "because it is the subject that has the subject-centred response. It is not the administered substance that generates the observed effect." (See below).

Sometimes known as non-specific effects or subject-expectancy effects, a so-called placebo effect occurs when a patient's symptoms are altered in some way (i.e., alleviated or exacerbated) by an otherwise inert treatment, due to the individual expecting or believing that it will work. Some people consider this to be a remarkable aspect of human physiology; others consider it to be an illusion arising from the way medical experiments are conducted.

A placebo is sometimes called a "sugar pill" in informal writings for the general public to quickly say that it has no useful medicinal content.

Answer 2

CNN style headline: Lou Dobbs anti-semitic? (i.e.: hypothesis stated as a question.)

Is Lou Dobbs an anti-semite because he asked Andrew Young about Michael Richard's racist rant but did not question Andrew Young about his own anti-semetic rant?

This is an example of a question (study) which you are now evaluating in your own mind (a participant). The information contained in the question states a hypothesis suggesting a result you (the participant) may not have considered .

Do you think the question as stated including the hypothesis and supporting information for a specific outcome will affect you reaching your own conclusion?

If you were presented the evidence without the hypothesis would you have reached the same conclusion?

Example of same question without the hypothesis: Lou Dobbs asked Andrew Young about Michael Richard's racist rant but did not question Andrew Young about his anti-semetic rant. What conclusion do you draw about Lou Dobbs?

Answer 3

If participants new the hypothesis the may form an opinion about what the outcome should be . They could deliberately or unconsciously alter the outcome. Some people try to please others too much some are inclined to resist and do the opposite of what they think is expected instead of going with the flow.

Answer 4

A Blind Study. The participants should not know the hypothesis because it will color their responses, even if they don't mean for it to happen.

Answer 5

a blind study is what I think you are talking about. They do this so people cannot pick favorites.

There is also a double blind study that they use in alot of medical tests. In this study the people are given a medicine and a few of the people are given a sugar pill. The people and the doctors administering he test are not told which are real and which are not. This is a more accurate test.