2 ms·
Well, some people might, indeed, be educated stupid, though I hope to god no actual Stats 101 class teaches people that p < 0.05 = significant, other than as a
by kenko 14y ago
Well, some people might, indeed, be educated stupid, though I hope to god no actual Stats 101 class teaches people that p < 0.05 = significant, other than as a convention that people might want to be aware of when they encounter the phrase "statistically significant".
I would be legitimately shocked if even a single doctor were willing to defend that p-test as in principle what it is for something to be statistically significant no matter what thing is at issue, rather than as a decent enough heuristic.
Nevertheless, the parenthetical you highlight is, indeed, probably literally false. I was employing a rhetorical device to convey the degree to which I found the point that, evidently, is the one Randall actually intended to be trivial.
- adrianhoward 14y agoI would be legitimately shocked if even a single doctor were willing to defend that p-test as in principle what it is for something to be statistically significant no matter what thing is at issue, rather than as a decent enough heuristic Unless things have changed in the last twenty years, when I did a series of interviews with doctors about Bayesian probabilities in relation to an expert system project, you're going to be unpleasantly surprised at both the number who do - and the number who aren't really very sure what a p-test is at all...
- deleted 14y ago[deleted]
- dbecker 14y agoI share your sensibilities. But I work with consumers of statistical analysis on a daily basis, and it is an unfortunately common to put stars next to parameters that are statistically significant at the 5% level. And many people treat that star or lack thereof as a very serious indication of whether the parameter is "meaningful." I have even seen a slide presentation by consultants with a business practice of dropping all variables with p>.05, and re-estimating the model (doing this repeatedly until all variables have p>0.05). The reliance on p-value thresholds is heartbreaking.