Statistics – Page 120 – William M. Briggs

The Epidemiologist Fallacy Strikes Again: Premature Birth Rate Edition

Hypothesis testing leads to more scientific nonsense than any other practice, including fraud. Hypothesis testing, as regular readers know, cannot identify cause. It conflates decision with probability and leads to…

Class Statistics

Lovely Example of Statistics Gone Bad

The graph above (biggified version here) was touted by Simon Kuestenmacher (who posts many beautiful maps). He said "This plot shows the objects that were found to be 'the most…

Statistics

Why Younger Evangelicals Waver in Support for Israel

Update It appears some think I believe unquestioning support of Israel is a good thing, or that I agree with evangelical interpretations of prophecy. If so, I wrote badly. This…

Other Practical Books On Par With <em>Uncertainty</em>? Reader Question

Fun Statistics

Other Practical Books On Par With Uncertainty? Reader Question

Got this email from VD. I've edited to remove any personal information and to add blog-standard style and links. I answered, and I remind all readers of the on-going claassre,…

Statistics

Manipulating the Alpha Level Cannot Cure Significance Testing

Nothing can cure significance testing. Except a bullet to the p-value. (That sound you heard was from readers pretending to swoon.) The paper is out and official---and free!: "Manipulating the…

Class Statistics

Choose Predictive Over Parametric Every Time

Gaze and wonder at picture which heads this article, which I lifted from John Haman's nifty R package ciTools. The numbers in the plot are made up whole cloth to…

Inference To The Best Explanation: Shapiro’s <em>The Miracle Myth</em> Reviewed — Part II

Book review Philosophy Statistics

Inference To The Best Explanation: Shapiro’s The Miracle Myth Reviewed — Part II

Read Part I. A researcher puts you into a room. On the table is a blue ball. Somebody put it there. It could have been Alice, Bob, or Charlie. Given…

Statistics

People Are Less Religious When Government Is Bigger

This is making the news. A guy we've seen before is up to his usual statistical shenanigans in the peer-reviewed paper "Religion as an Exchange System: The Interchangeability of God…

Dan MacDougald on Peer-Reviewed Research: Men Find Looking At Nearly Naked Women DistractingJuly 22, 2025
Reminds me of the study that found college women were more likely to have hook up sex after drinking alcohol
Peer-Reviewed Research: Men Find Looking At Nearly Naked Women Distracting – William M. Briggs on Peer-reviewed research: Men find looking at nearly naked women distractingJuly 22, 2025
[…] This classic column originally ran on 12 June 2008. […]
Media Lament State Dept Cuts, Ignore Job Wreckage From Past Democratic Admins on The Myth Of Killer Mercury: Guest Post By Willie Soon & Paul DriessenJuly 21, 2025
[…] generating plants with equal zeal, using questionable-to-bogus claims about climate change, mercury, and fine particulates to justify its actions. One…
Layoffs at – Versus Because of – Federal Agencies - The Post & Email on The Myth Of Killer Mercury: Guest Post By Willie Soon & Paul DriessenJuly 20, 2025
[…] generating plants with equal zeal, using questionable to bogus claims about climate change, mercury and fine particulates to justify…
Kevin McMillen on The Hierarchy Of Intelligences & IQ: We’re Not As Smart As We ThinkJuly 19, 2025
Is this article proof that you didn’t score very well on a recent IQ test?