What is the difference between a manipulative experiment and a natural experiment?

Answer 1

A manipulative experiment involves actively manipulating variables to observe the effects on the outcome of interest, while a natural experiment relies on naturally occurring variations in variables to study their impact. In a manipulative experiment, the researcher has control over the variables being studied, whereas in a natural experiment, the variables are not manipulated by the researcher. Manipulative experiments are often conducted in a controlled laboratory setting, while natural experiments take place in real-world settings where random assignment is not feasible.

Answer 2

A manipulative experiment involves actively manipulating variables to observe the effect on outcomes, while a natural experiment relies on naturally occurring variations in variables to study their impact. Manipulative experiments offer more control over variables but may lack external validity, while natural experiments provide insights into real-world situations but have limited control over variables.

Answer 3

in a manipulative experiment the investigator has control over the variables in the experiment. a natural experiment is simply making observations of naturally occurring events and looking for correlations between phenomena. Natural experiments are primarily just measuring and analyzing statistics.