You may be simplifying too much to be understood. In medical terms, if your drug is significantly more effective than doing nothing, but a placebo is not signif

You may be simplifying too much to be understood. In medical terms, if your drug is significantly more effective than doing nothing, but a placebo is not significantly more effective than doing nothing, your drug need not be significantly more effective than the placebo. (Yes, medicine typically avoids this particular error.) (E.g. if doing nothing cures 10%, the placebo cures 11% and the drug cures 12%, only the difference drug/nothing may be significant.)