The Search for Significance: A Few Peculiarities in the Distribution of P Values in Experimental Psychology Literature

Michał Krawczyk

PLOS ONE, 2015, vol. 10, issue 6, 1-19

Abstract: In this project I investigate the use and possible misuse of p values in papers published in five (high-ranked) journals in experimental psychology. I use a data set of over 135’000 p values from more than five thousand papers. I inspect (1) the way in which the p values are reported and (2) their distribution. The main findings are following: first, it appears that some authors choose the mode of reporting their results in an arbitrary way. Moreover, they often end up doing it in such a way that makes their findings seem more statistically significant than they really are (which is well known to improve the chances for publication). Specifically, they frequently report p values “just above” significance thresholds directly, whereas other values are reported by means of inequalities (e.g. “p

Date: 2015
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:plo:pone00:0127872

DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0127872

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