How redefining statistical significance can worsen the replication crisis

Cole Williams

Economics Letters, 2019, vol. 181, issue C, 65-69

Abstract: In response to the replication crisis in science, a group of prominent scholars has proposed redefining statistical significance by reducing the p-value significance threshold from 0.05 to 0.005. Rather than solving the replication problem, I show that lowering the significance threshold can increase the rate of false positives by creating a negative selection effect. Thus, redefining statistical significance may not be a silver bullet for solving the replication crisis.

Keywords: Significance testing; Statistical significance; Replication crisis; Negative selection (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:ecolet:v:181:y:2019:i:c:p:65-69

DOI: 10.1016/j.econlet.2019.05.007

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