95% is an arbitrarily chosen number which is a rule of thumb. Very frequently you will see people doing further investigation into things where p>0.10, or if they simply feel like there was something interesting worth monitoring. This is, of course, a major cause of publication bias, but it is not unreasonable or irrational behavior.
If the effect is really so minor it is going to be extremely difficult to measure in the first place, especially if there is background noise.
It’s not a rule of thumb; it’s used as the primary factor in making policy decisions incorrectly. In this specific example, the regulatory agency made the statement “There is no evidence that artificial colorings are linked to hyperactivity” based on the data that artificial colorings are linked to hyperactivity with p~.13
There are many other cases in medical where 0.05p<.5 is used as evidence against p.
95% is an arbitrarily chosen number which is a rule of thumb. Very frequently you will see people doing further investigation into things where p>0.10, or if they simply feel like there was something interesting worth monitoring. This is, of course, a major cause of publication bias, but it is not unreasonable or irrational behavior.
If the effect is really so minor it is going to be extremely difficult to measure in the first place, especially if there is background noise.
It’s not a rule of thumb; it’s used as the primary factor in making policy decisions incorrectly. In this specific example, the regulatory agency made the statement “There is no evidence that artificial colorings are linked to hyperactivity” based on the data that artificial colorings are linked to hyperactivity with p~.13
There are many other cases in medical where 0.05p<.5 is used as evidence against p.