Determine whether the following research topic is best investigated through an experiment or an observational study.

Question

You want to know whether taller people make more money than shorter people.

A) The topic is best investigated through an observational study.

B) The topic is best investigated through an experiment.

Answer 1

Hi Chris,

This topic would best be studied through an observational study. An experimental study would likely be difficult to conduct in this situation because it would require the selection of tall and short people into your variable and control groups and then having these people assigned to jobs. The ethics of such an experiment would be questionable. An observational study would be more feasible because one could more easily correlate height with income in a non-experimental setting. An observational study does carry greater risk of bias, but this can be minimized with proper statistical approaches and appropriate methodology.

Tl;dr an experimental study is always superior, but in this case an observational study is more feasible.

Best,

Simon