Editing 790: Control

{{comic
| number    = 790
| date      = September 8, 2010
| title     = Control
| image     = control.png
| titletext = Which, at one point, led to a study showing that LSD produces no more hallucinations than a placebo.
}}

==Explanation==
This is another in the [[My Hobby]] series. In a product experiment, two groups of people are given a certain pill or lotion. Some people are given the product to be tested, while others (the control group) are given a placebo; nobody is told which group they belong to. The control group acts as a norm for comparison against the others.

Randall has messed with this process by giving LSD ({{w|lysergic acid diethylamide}}) to the control group. LSD is a drug that causes hallucinations and distortions in the perception of time and space. [[Megan]], apparently a control, is experiencing spiders in her hallucinations. Since the control group is supposed to reflect what "normally" happens, this is indeed very confusing to the scientists. While hallucinating in the comic Megan is drawn as if she has 8 limbs showing that she's waving her arms. Alternatively, although not especially likely, this could signify that she actually has grown four extra arms - which would be very confusing even if the scientists knew about the LSD.{{Citation needed}}

However, given the scientists are confused, this means that they must know which person is in which group. This implies that the trial isn't double-blinded, which in and of itself would impact the veracity of the study. In a properly double-blinded study, the scientists would not know Cueball or [[Megan]] was the control and would only dutifully record their observations. (Alternatively, this is simply an unexpected result for either group.)

The title text suggests that, in a different study, this substitution was performed when the product being tested was itself LSD. This led to the conclusion that LSD is no more likely to cause hallucinations than a placebo, somehow implying that LSD is not a hallucinogen.  We can only hope they were able to redo the test, as in layman's terms "Nonsense MUST be wrong". If this were true, this would imply that Randall would only have needed to sneak placebo LSD into the studies to get the same effect.

==Transcript==
:[Caption above the frame:]
:My Hobby:

:[Cueball looks down at his arm calmly, while next to him Megan is violently flailing around in terror. In the foreground a Cueball-like guy stands next to Ponytail who is holding a clipboard. They look on in puzzlement.]
:Cueball: My rash seems to have shrunk by about 20% today.
:Megan: OH GOD SPIDERS
:Cueball-like guy: ? ?
:Ponytail: ?

:[Caption below the frame:]
:Sneaking into experiments and giving LSD to the control group.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:My Hobby]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Multiple Cueballs]]
[[Category:Spiders]]
[[Category:Scientific research]]