The Cult of Statistical Significance Quotes

“Significance unfortunately is a useful means toward a personal ends in the advance of science - status and widely distributed publications, a big laboratory, a staff of research assistants, a reduction in teaching load, a better salary, the finer wines of Bordeaux. Precision, knowledge, and control. In a narrow and cynical sense statistical significance is the way to achieve these. Design experiment. Then calculate statistical significance. Publish articles showing "significant" results. Enjoy promotion.

But it is not science, and it will not last.”
― Stephen Thomas Ziliak, The Cult of Statistical Significance: How the Standard Error Costs Us Jobs, Justice, and Lives

“A small sample, we repeat, is rarely the big scientific problem. Interpretation is.”
― Stephen Thomas Ziliak, The Cult of Statistical Significance: How the Standard Error Costs Us Jobs, Justice, and Lives