Collective Equipoise, Disappointment and the Therapeutic Misconception: On the Consequences of Selection for Clinical Research

Abstract

Private information induces individuals to self-select as subjects into clinical research trials, and it induces researchers to select which trials they conduct. We show that selection can induce ex ante therapeutic misconception and ex post disappointment among research subjects; and it undermines it the rationale of collective equipoise as an ethical basis for clinical trials. Selection provides a reason to make non-trivial payments to subjects and it implies that researchers should not design experiments to maximize statistical power.clinical trials, therapeutic misconception, equipoise, selection