← Back to Topics

Missing Control Group

Commenters repeatedly question or criticize the lack of a control group in the discussed study or experiment, debating its scientific validity and calling for proper controls like RCTs or double-blind trials.

📉 Falling 0.4x Science
4,091
Comments
20
Years Active
5
Top Authors
#9397
Topic ID

Activity Over Time

2007
3
2008
19
2009
67
2010
72
2011
71
2012
81
2013
138
2014
174
2015
195
2016
208
2017
208
2018
254
2019
338
2020
467
2021
435
2022
397
2023
385
2024
283
2025
275
2026
21

Top Contributors

gus_massa (50) gwern (24) tokenadult (16) cpncrunch (16) AstralStorm (16)

Keywords

RCT e.g US NYT time.html UVA NIH I.e nytimes.com Virginia.edu control group control group study randomized experiment controlled blind treatment participants

Sample Comments

waterlooalex • Jul 2, 2014 • View on HN

It doesn't look like they had a control group, did they?

gameswithgo • Apr 12, 2019 • View on HN

when i read this i saw no mention of a control group?

barbazoo • Jan 9, 2025 • View on HN

They didn't even have a control group?!?

JoeAltmaier • Apr 29, 2020 • View on HN

Its not clear they compared to any control group?

debrice • Jun 12, 2020 • View on HN

it's gonna be hard to run a double-blind experiment on that one

cpncrunch • Jan 9, 2015 • View on HN

There's no mention of any control group in the article at all.

nolok • Jul 26, 2014 • View on HN

With or without each person's approval ? What is your control group ?

dogweather • Apr 10, 2024 • View on HN

No control group; that's too bad.

Kluny • Apr 7, 2021 • View on HN

In this case, it's not possible to have a control group. You should interpret this data as a case study rather than a randomized trial.

uniqueuid • May 6, 2024 • View on HN

Fair question! We would need a RCT with controls for that, perhaps one exists :)