Twelve people who suffer from chronic fatigue syndrome volunteer to take part in an experiment to see if shark fin extract will increase one's energy level. Eight of the volunteers are men and four are women. Half of the volunteers are to be given shark fin extract twice a day and the other half a placebo twice a day. We wish to make sure that four men and two women are assigned to each of the treatments, so we decide to use a block design with the men forming one block and the women the other. For which reason is a block design appropriate in this experiment?

a. Gender equity is an important legal consideration in this study
b. We believe men and women will respond differently to treatments.
c. We want the conclusions to apply equally to men and women.
d. All of the above