Question

what is the relationship between benchmarking and control groups?

Answer 1

In statistics, we come across many experimental studies in which the effect of a certain thing is to be analyzed.

For instance, there are numerous drug based studies in which it is examined what effect the new drug has on the patients who consume it.

Let's suppose that a new drug has been discovered which is claimed to cure diabetes. In order to test whether this drug actually has an effect, we collect two groups of people who are diabetic. To one group the drug is administered, this is called the experimental group. The other group is not given the drug and is called the 'control group'.

Since the control group is the group which does not get any of the experimental treatments, it is expected that there will be absolutely no effect visible in this group. So this group is used as a standard, or a 'benchmark', to measure the level of the effect visible in the experimental group.

So control groups are basically used as a benchmark to see the visible differences in the experimental group receiving the treatment.