The cult of statistical significance : how the standard error costs us jobs, justice, and lives /
by Stephen T. Ziliak and Deirdre N. McCloskey.
- xxiii, 321 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm.
- Economics, cognition, and society .
- Economics, cognition, and society. .
Includes bibliographical references (pages 265-287) and index.
A significant problem -- Dieting "significance" and the case of Vioxx -- The sizeless stare of statistical significance -- What the sizeless scientists say in defense -- Better practice: [beta]-importance vs. [alpha]-"significance" -- A lot can go wrong in the use of significance tests in economics -- A lot did go wrong in the American Economic Review during the 1980s -- Is economic practice improving? -- How big is big in economics? -- What the sizeless stare costs, economically speaking -- How economics stays that way: the textbooks and the referees -- The not-boring rise of significance in psychology -- Psychometrics lacks power -- The psychology of psychological significance testing -- Medicine seeks a magic pill -- Rothman's revolt -- On drugs, disability, and death -- Edgeworth's significance -- "Take 3[sigma] as definitely significant": Pearson's rule -- Who sits on the egg of culculus canorus? Not Karl Pearson -- Gosset: the fable of the bee -- Fisher: the fable of the wasp -- How the wasp stung the bee and took over some sciences -- Eighty years of trained incapacity: how such a thing could happen -- What to do.