Do product labels influence customer perceptions? To find out, researchers recruited more than 500 adults and asked them to estimate the number of calories, amount of added sugar, and amount of fat in a variety of food products. Half of the subjects were randomly assigned to evaluate products with the word “Natural” on the label, while the other half were assigned to evaluate the same products without the “Natural” label. On average, the products with the “Natural” label were judged to have significantly fewer calories. Based on this study, is it reasonable to conclude that including the word “Natural” on the label causes a reduction in estimated calories?

a. No, because the adults weren’t randomly selected from the population of all adults.

b. No, because there wasn’t a control group for comparison.

c. No, because association doesn’t imply causation.

d. Yes, because the adults were randomly assigned to the treatments.

e. Yes, because there were a large number of adults involved in the study.

Select the best answer.