The idea is ludicrous. Where I’ve challenged academic elites is that the randomized controlled trial design of research was developed to test medications compared to a placebo. Thankfully, others have spoken up as well. An entire issue of the journal Social Science and Medicine was recently devoted to it, with many articles pointing to the shortcomings of randomized trials.1 Here’s one way to think of it: randomized controlled trials are not the way one should evaluate whether a parachute is effective in saving the lives of skydivers.
