Improbable Research

Double-Bland Experiments

The premiere of a new AIR feature

by Otto Didact, AIR staff

We proudly introduce a new Annals of Improbable Research column called "Double-Bland Experiments." The column will report on published accounts of double-bland experiments.

What is a double-bland experiment? You’ll recognize it when you read the researchers’ own published account of their work. An experiment is double-bland if:

1) It’s not at all clear what they could possibly have hoped to learn by doing the experiment; and

2) Looking at their published account of what they actually did, it’s not at all clear what, if anything, they did learn from it.

Here is an outstanding example.

"Clitoral Size in Normal Women," by Barry S. Verkauf, James Von Thron, and William F. O’Brien, Obstetrics and Gynecology, vol. 80, no. 1, July 1992, pp. 41-44.

If you know of an outstanding double-bland experiment that ought to be mentioned in this column, please mail or email us a copy of the original published report.

© Copyright 2002 Annals of Improbable Research (AIR)

This HotAIR feature first appeared in AIR VOLUME 8-ISSUE 4. For a complete list of strangely fascinating featured articles elsewhere on this web site, see What's New.