09/25/2025
This was named after an American folk hero that had to compete against the technology of the steam powered drill. In order to “beat” this advancement, he worked himself to death. Ultimately, this has been compared to individuals that will purposefully increase their effort in response to the knowledge that they are being compared to another (treatment) group.
While this may sound good, this effect may also skew the results of the effectiveness of a treatment.
This brings the importance of blinding to the forefront. When you “blind” either the researcher or participant, you keep them in the dark, or unaware of who is receiving treatment and how it is happening.
Single blinded study 👉 only participants are unaware of the treatment
Double blinded study 👉 both the participants and researchers are kept in the dark of treatment
Triple blinded study 👉 the participant, researcher and data analyst are all kept in the dark of treatment allocation
This ensures true efficacy of treatment and decreases bias, placebo and expectations that may occur.
Examples of blinding:
👉 incision without pe*******on for surgery
👉 injection of placebo
👉 sham maneuver/treatment
Further reading 📖:
Monaghan, T. F., Agudelo, C. W., Rahman, S. N., Wein, A. J., Lazar, J. M., Everaert, K., & Dmochowski, R. R. (2021). Blinding in Clinical Trials: Seeing the Big Picture. Medicina (Kaunas, Lithuania), 57(7), 647. https://doi.org/10.3390/medicina57070647
