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In statistics, a p-value [1] is a the odds of getting a result by chance if there's not actually an effect from the thing you're testing. A common threshold to
by delecti 8y ago
In statistics, a p-value [1] is a the odds of getting a result by chance if there's not actually an effect from the thing you're testing. A common threshold to use is .05, which means that you'd expect the given result less than 5% of the time by chance. Typically this indicates a relationship, but if you simultaneously test enough things that aren't causally linked you'd expect some to have p<0.05. A good example is this xkcd [2]. In the example, green jelly beans aren't actually related to acne, but just by chance the result seems to indicate they are.
[1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/P-value https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/P-value
[2] https://xkcd.com/882/ https://xkcd.com/882/