.
Yudi Pawitan
Professor
Department of Medical Epidemiology and Biostatistics
Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm
Behavioral aspects in the statistical significance war-game
I remember with fondness the good old days when the only ‘statistical war’-game was fought between the Bayesian and the frequentist. It was simpler – except when the likelihood principle is thrown in, always guaranteed to confound the frequentist – and the participants were for the most part collegial. Moreover, there was a feeling that it was a philosophical debate. Even though the Bayesian-frequentist war is not fully settled, we can see areas of consensus, for example in objective Bayesianism or in conditional inference. However, on the P-value and statistical significance front, the war looks less simple as it is about statistical praxis; it is no longer Bayesian vs frequentist, with no consensus in sight and with wide implications affecting the day-to-day use of statistics. Typically, a persistent controversy between otherwise sensible and knowledgeable people – thus excluding anti-vaxxers and conspiracy theorists – might indicate we are missing some common perspectives or perhaps the big picture. In complex issues there can be genuinely distinct aspects about which different players disagree and, at some point, agree to disagree. I am not sure we have reached that point yet, with each side still working to persuade the other side the faults of their position. For now, I can only concur with Mayo (2021)’s appeal that at least the umpires – journals editors – recognize (a) the issue at hand and (b) that genuine debates are still ongoing, so it is not yet time to take sides. Continue reading →
