The Student Room Group

Can you think of anything that is wrong with this experiment?

In terms of how the experiment has been carried out. They do not mention that they randomised subjects, nor do they state that statistical tests have been used to assure that the results did not come about due to chance, or that the results have been statistically proved to be significant.

Can you think of any others?


Daniel Wirth of Healing Sciences International in Orinda, California conducted a tightly controlled experiment involving a Reiki-like healing technique. Forty-four male college students received identical minor wounds deliberately inflicted by a doctor in the right or left shoulder. Twenty-three then received a Reiki like healing and the other twenty-one did not. The treatments were given in such a way that the possibility of a placebo effect was ruled out. All forty-four students extend their arms though a hole in the wall. In the other room, a trained healer was present for those who received healing and administered healing from a distance without touching. For those who did not receive healing, no one was present in the room. Both the students and the doctor who administered the wounds and later also evaluated their healing rate had been told that the experiment was about the electrical conductivity of the body. Neither knew that the experiment was about healing. Eight and sixteen day follow-up measurements of the rate of wound healing were done. After eight days, the treated groups wounds had shrunk 93.5 percent compared with 67.3 percent for those not treated. After sixteen days, the figures were 99.3 and 90.9. After debriefing, the students stated they did not know the true nature of the experiment and had felt no contact with the healer. The possibility that expectations of the students caused the healing was ruled out.
They did different shoulders (some right, some left) as stupid as that sounds

Might they have gone home and taken something themselves?

They needed a mixture of ages, genders, races?

Some cuts deeper than others?

It would be interesting to see how much the answers varied too
Reply 2
Were the wounds inflicted before or after the allocation into the treatment and placebo groups ?
If the cutter knew that the victim was going to receive some kind of help he might unconsciously cut harder than on a victim who would not receive any help...

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