The Cult of Statistical Significance
Posted: Fri Aug 17, 2018 12:42 pm
Why I looked at this book
In the quest to make sure that results are credible, statistics is becoming more and more important in science, and in particular in the medical sciences. But somehow it doesn't seem to work. Clinical trials should provide reasonable certitude as to the effectiveness and safety of a treatment, but it seems to often happen that a few years after the trial a fatal flaw is found. And trying to tighten up the testing looks likely to exclude life-saving treatments. This book claims that the quest for statistical significance has been a great mistake. I'm hoping that this will help to explain current flaws in medical and simliar trials, and tell how they might be done better in the future.