Practice question · Multiple choice
Lowering alpha from 0.05 to 0.01 reduces false positives. Why is that not simply an improvement?
Hints
- Ask what happens to a true effect sitting at p = 0.03 when you move the line.
- Which is worse: approving a useless drug, or shelving a working one?
Show the answer
A. Because the two errors trade against each other
Why
You are moving a line, and both kinds of error sit on it. Stricter alpha buys fewer false alarms and misses more real effects, which is right for a drug approval and wrong for a screening test where a miss is fatal. There is no setting that is simply correct.
Practise Hypothesis Testing and P-Values
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