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It seems to me that people put too much faith in statistics despite not having a fundamental understanding of the methods. I'm sure in plenty of cases these fri
by 0xddd 6y ago
It seems to me that people put too much faith in statistics despite not having a fundamental understanding of the methods. I'm sure in plenty of cases these frivolous results get published due to academic fraud and the pressure of publish or perish. But in other cases, it seems like researchers really think "p<.05" translates to "your alternative hypothesis is irrefutably true" and will believe their flimsy conclusions because, as far as they're concerned, numbers don't lie. (If I remember correctly, when Brian Wansink was exposed for p-hacking, it was partly because he wrote a blog post openly describing his sketchy research methods, where he seemed totally unaware that he was churning out illegitimate results.)
- anitil 6y agoI've been trying to find this blog post, any chance you can remember more of it to help my googling?
- 0xddd 6y agoI managed to dig it up: https://web.archive.org/web/20170312041524/http:/www.brianwansink.com/phd-advice/the-grad-student-who-never-said-no https://web.archive.org/web/20170312041524/http:/www.brianwa.... It really is incredible to read Wansink's clueless non-rebuttals to the comments that point out his academic fraud.
- lowdose 6y agoStaggering replies from him on the negative comments on his methods and thinking, what a character. What a gem to read, absurt funny title "The Grad Student Who Never Said "No". And the fact that at least 54 times people took a snapshot of the webpage. We should print this on toilet paper and sell it to universities.
- anitil 6y agoThankyou!