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We need statistical thinking, not statistical rituals

Behavioral and Brain SciencesPublished 1 April 1998Open access
Gerd Gigerenzer
Citations78
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Abstract

What Chow calls NHSTP is an inconsistent hybrid of Fisherian and Neyman-Pearsonian ideas. In psychology it has been practiced like ritualistic handwashing and sustained by wishful thinking about its utility. Chow argues that NHSTP is an important tool for ruling out chance as an explanation for data. I disagree. This ritual discourages theory development by providing researchers with no incentive to specify hypotheses.

Keywords

Mathematics