Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) are designed to isolate cause and effect. They have become important instruments for evaluating interventions in medicine, economics and public health. Their strength comes from assigning ‘treatments’ independently of the characteristics of the participants.
However, people live in communities, and interventions delivered to individuals can have consequences far beyond the outcome that researchers set out to measure. Writing in Nature, Papamichalis et al.1 highlight this phenomenon. Access Nature and 54 other Nature Portfolio journals Get Nature+, our best-value online-access subscription Receive 51 print issues and online access Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-026-03267-w Papamichalis, M., Forastiere, L., Airoldi, E.
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