2 ms·
It really all depends on the methodology. I recommend some reading about 'p-hacking'. It is not that hard to find to find really shocking findings in large data
by sz4kerto 6y ago
It really all depends on the methodology. I recommend some reading about 'p-hacking'. It is not that hard to find to find really shocking findings in large datasets -- the question is how hard you look. In this particular case, the question is how many hypotheses have been evaluated, i.e. has the author 'mined the data' for correlations. If yes, then the acceptable p value is much smaller than normal.
- croissants 6y agoI think it's a bit of a reach to suggest that this is p-hacking. Some of the relevant authors have studied this hypothesis (a gap in pregnancy-related outcomes between black and white people) across multiple papers, and the effect found here -- ignoring any p calculation -- is pretty big. It's not like they're picking some extremely specific combination of factors.
- x86_64Ubuntu 6y agoAnd this is the narrative that I'm speaking of when I mention how these discussions go. It's a gish-gallop of saying that since we have imperfect knowledge, we can't draw a single conclusion about phenomena and systems that are well documented. First it's the lack of studies, then you get a study and it's a hidden bias in the populations used in the study, then it's the "low sample size" (that's a favorite), after that it's p-hacking or whatever else. And it goes on and on, even though for hundreds of years, the country and society were tuned to ensure that the black community enjoyed degraded outcomes in all aspects of life.