Dear Tutor, I am having some trouble understanding why it is so important to randomly assign participants to experimental conditions. It seems that if you have a large enough sample, the results would probably be valid even if you didn’t bother to randomize the participants. Why is it important to go through the trouble of randomizing participants? Also, if you are going to randomly assign participants, how should you do it?
Respond to this student’s email by explaining the concepts. In your response, be sure that you explain why it is essential to randomize participants. Also, explain some of the ways that a researcher can randomly assign participants. Last, be sure to explain how a researcher can make valid conclusions even in situations where randomization is not possible.