Michelle Bachmann Is Evil

[Street Pharmacist]

Originally Posted by TorqueDog

Also... ... which is it? If it's significantly better than chance, then how can it be 'not by much'? *slams head into desk*

Significant does not refer to size of effect, but whether it is statistically considered random.

You can have a tiny, but significant effect

[Vulcan]

Despite our current government, I think a politicians requirement to profess a belief in God is mostly an American thing. In Canada a politicians religion isn't usually brought up and this is a good thing.

[TorqueDog]

Originally Posted by Street Pharmacist

Significant does not refer to size of effect, but whether it is statistically considered random.

You can have a tiny, but significant effect

"Significantly better" is referring to the size of the effect, or you would simply say "better than chance". Significantly better suggests it's far better than chance. It's a terrible wording for the point they were trying to get across.

[Street Pharmacist]

Originally Posted by TorqueDog

"Significantly better" is referring to the size of the effect, or you would simply say "better than chance". Significantly better suggests it's far better than chance. It's a terrible wording for the point they were trying to get across.

You'll see that wording in the discussion of clinical trials all the time and was quite confusing for me when I first started pharmacy. As in "Ibuprofen was significantly better at reducing pain, but the effect was small".

Didn't read this article though so I can't comment on the authors wording