Hey Nim’
No reason to be embarrassed. RCT = randomized controlled trial.
All studies have some potential for bias, but this kind is seen as the least likely to show results that might have been caused by something else. That’s because (1) the people who get the treatment being tested are chosen at random, (2) a placebo or control group is used for comparison with all other conditions being equal, and (3) where possible, researchers and subjects are kept from knowing who got the placebo.
Results of RCTs make especially convincing evidence when the test was done on a whole big whack of people at once, when lots of other researchers test the same thing and come up with similar results (i.e., replicate it), AND when the study was “peer reviewed” before publishing (which means other scientists pored over its methods and criticized the hell out of it before deciding that it stood up to scrutiny).
By the way, good studies are also published with a public declaration of the “competing interests” of the people who did the research. So if, for instance, you’ve submitted a brilliant study that shows evidence for dried asparagus as a treatment for ADHD, and it turns out that you also sell asparagus vitamin-capsules from your website or you’re the white-coated front-woman for Asparag-Focus Inc. Corporation, your study may not appear terribly reliable.
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