The null hypothesis is always rejected with statistical tricks: Why do you need it?

Authors

  • Freddy A. Paniagua

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.30849/rip/ijp.v53i1.1166

Abstract

Ferguson (2015) observed that the proportion of studies supporting the experimental hypothesis and rejecting the null hypothesis is very high. This paper argues that the reason for this scenario is that researchers in the behavioral sciences have learned that the null hypothesis can always be rejected if one knows the statistical tricks to reject it (e.g., the probability of rejecting the null hypothesis increases with p = 0.05 compare to p = 0.01). Examples of the advancement of science without the need to formulate the null hypothesis are also discussed, as well as alternatives to null hypothesis significance testing-NHST (e.g., effect sizes), and the importance to distinguish the statistical significance from the practical significance of results.

 

Author Biography

Freddy A. Paniagua

University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, Texas.  Retired Tenured Professor and currently Adjunct Professor. Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences.

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Published

2019-08-17

How to Cite

Paniagua, F. A. (2019). The null hypothesis is always rejected with statistical tricks: Why do you need it?. Revista Interamericana De Psicología/Interamerican Journal of Psychology, 53(1), 17–27. https://doi.org/10.30849/rip/ijp.v53i1.1166

Issue

Vol. 53 No. 1 (2019): Interamerican Journal of Psychology/Revista Interamericana de Psicologia

Section

Articles

License

Copyright (c) 2019 Freddy A. Paniagua

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