IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/japsta/v38y2011i11p2617-2626.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The widespread misinterpretation of p -values as error probabilities

Author

Listed:
  • Raymond Hubbard

Abstract

The anonymous mixing of Fisherian ( p -values) and Neyman--Pearsonian (α levels) ideas about testing, distilled in the customary but misleading p > α criterion of statistical significance, has led researchers in the social and management sciences (and elsewhere) to commonly misinterpret the p -value as a ‘data-adjusted’ Type I error rate. Evidence substantiating this claim is provided from a number of fronts, including comments by statisticians, articles judging the value of significance testing, textbooks, surveys of scholars, and the statistical reporting behaviours of applied researchers. That many investigators do not know the difference between p ’s and α’s indicates much bewilderment over what those most ardently sought research outcomes—statistically significant results—means. Statisticians can play a leading role in clearing this confusion. A good starting point would be to abolish the p > α criterion of statistical significance.

Suggested Citation

  • Raymond Hubbard, 2011. "The widespread misinterpretation of p -values as error probabilities," Journal of Applied Statistics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 38(11), pages 2617-2626, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:japsta:v:38:y:2011:i:11:p:2617-2626
    DOI: 10.1080/02664763.2011.567245
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/02664763.2011.567245
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/02664763.2011.567245?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Steens, Bert & Bots, Jan & Derks, Koen, 2024. "Developing digital competencies of controllers: Evidence from the Netherlands," International Journal of Accounting Information Systems, Elsevier, vol. 52(C).

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:taf:japsta:v:38:y:2011:i:11:p:2617-2626. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/CJAS20 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.