Randomistas: How Radical Researchers Are Changing Our World

Leigh (The Luck of Politics), an Australian MP, covers the important and contested subject of randomized trials and how they affect the world in this encompassing account. He provides readers with an intelligible guide to this scientific technique from the mid-18th century, when trials were conducted seeking a cure to scurvy, to the present variety of trials taking place across industries and disciplines. Randomized trials have been used to test the effectiveness both of tiny changes—the U.K. government’s “Nudge Unit” discovered car tax collection letters became 9% more effective “if they included a photograph of the offending vehicle”—and of high-stakes processes—a 2013 trial found a very common kind of knee surgery no more effective than simply telling patients they had undergone the operation. Leigh finds that randomized trials have challenged assumptions in many fields, from social welfare policy to retail marketing strategies. And though many people presume that randomized trials are impractically costly and time-consuming , Leigh shows how today’s researchers are demonstrating that “randomised experiments can be done quickly, simply, and cheaply.” Even a general audience can appreciate this well-rounded and intriguing overview of a surprisingly far-reaching topic. (Aug.)