Practice question · True or false
A result with p = 0.049 and a result with p = 0.051 tell you almost the same thing about the world, even though only the first is labeled 'statistically significant'.
Hints
- The 0.05 threshold is a convention, not a natural boundary.
- The evidence differs trivially; only the significance LABEL flips.
Show the answer
True
Why
True. The 0.05 cutoff is a convention, so p = 0.049 and p = 0.051 reflect nearly identical evidence - only the significance label changes at the arbitrary line. Treating that line as a sharp truth boundary is a well-known pitfall.
Practise Statistical Significance
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