Indeed, I fully agree with this. Yet when deciding that something is so small that it’s not relevant, it’s (in my view anyway) important to be mindful of that, and to be transparent about your “relevance threshold”, as other people may disagree about it.
Personally I think it’s perfectly fine for people to consciously say “the effect size of this is likely so close to 0 we can ignore it” rather than “there is no effect”, because the former may well be completely true, while the latter hints at a level of ignorance that leaves the door for conceptual mistakes wide open.
Indeed, I fully agree with this. Yet when deciding that something is so small that it’s not relevant, it’s (in my view anyway) important to be mindful of that, and to be transparent about your “relevance threshold”, as other people may disagree about it.
Personally I think it’s perfectly fine for people to consciously say “the effect size of this is likely so close to 0 we can ignore it” rather than “there is no effect”, because the former may well be completely true, while the latter hints at a level of ignorance that leaves the door for conceptual mistakes wide open.