In: Statistics and Probability
You think that people will be more willing to agree with a new company policy if the president holds a meeting to explain the logic behind the decision. You select 20 people and randomly divide them into two groups. One group listens to a speech by the president detailing the reasons for a recent company decision and the other group listens to a speech by the president detailing the company’s most recent financial statement. You ask each participant on a scale of 1-100 how much they support the new company policy.
Is this a study or an experiment? Describe your reason(s) in details
A study is an observational mode of data collection and analysis wherein the researcher simply observes a certain phenomenon or individuals without actually tweaking the subjects under study. An experiment, on the other hand, involves randomization of the subjects in a controlled manner in order to avoid any inherent bias that might affect the results and also to remove the effect of control variables.
In the question mentioned, two groups are created. 20 people are selected and are randomly allocated to either group. One of the group listens to president and details the reasons for recent company decisions while the other group listens to president and details the company's financial statement.
Based on their task, they are asked to report how strongly or weakly they support the new company policy. Since, this is a controlled study with two groups to which subjects are allocated via the process of randomization, this is an instance of experiment.