(Pseudo-)Science Blog

Web log for PH 170: Philosophy of Science and Pseudoscience – – – – – – – – – – – Professor Peter Bokulich

Aug

4

Jelly Beans and P-Values

By Peter Bokulich

The standard criterion for considering a scientific study to be statistically significant is having a p-value less than 5%.

This means that (according to the relevant background theory) there’s less than a one in twenty chance that the result in question would have been found merely as a result of chance.

Here’s what that can mean in real life:

(xkcd original here)

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