In its January 25, 2012, issue, the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) reported on the effects of overconsumption of low, normal, and high protein diets on weight gain, energy expenditure, and body composition. Researchers conducted a single blind, randomized controlled trial of 25 U.S. adults. The subjects were healthy, weight-stable, male and female volunteers, aged 18 to 35 years. All subjects consumed a weight-stabilizing diet for 13 to 25 days. Afterwards, the researchers randomly assigned participants to diets containing various percentages of energy from protein: 5% (low protein), 15% (normal protein), or 25% (high protein). The subjects were not aware of the specific protein level diet to which they were assigned. On these diets the researchers overfed the participants during the last 8 weeks of their 10 to 12 week stay in the inpatient metabolic unit. The goal was to investigate the effect of overconsumption of protein on weight gain, energy expenditure, and body composition.

What is the purpose of random assignment in this experiment? Check all that apply.

1. To generalize the experiment results to a larger group
2. To avoid bias
3. To produce treatment groups with similar characteristics
4. To control for confounding variables