1. in the experiment of the preceding exercise, the subjects were randomly assigned to the different treatments. men with high blood pressure are assigned at random to one of four diets:
(1) normal diet with unrestricted salt;
(2) vegetarian with unrestricted salt;
(3) normal with restricted salt; and
(4) vegetarian with restricted salt.
2. what is the most important reason for this random assignment?
a. random assignment reduces the amount of variation in blood pressure.
b. random assignment is a good way to create groups of subjects that are roughly equivalent at the beginning of the experiment.
c. random assignment makes it possible to make a conclusion about all men.
d. random assignment eliminates the effects of other variables such as stress and body weight.
e. random assignment prevents the placebo effect from ruining the results of the study.