The Cult of Statistical Significance: How the Standard Error Costs Us Jobs, Justice, and Lives (Economics, Cognition, and Society)
"[Steve Ziliak and Deirdre McCloskey] explain to us why the misunderstanding of statistical significance has lead to bad government policy making and how one particularly famous brewery employed the technique to improve the pints we enjoy today."—Tim Harford, BBC(Tim HarfordBBC20090123)"Despite appearing to be a book of limited appeal - it is after all a book th (NALondon Book Review20081223)"Persuading professionals that their procedures are wrong is a long and lonely task. McCloskey, joined later by Ziliak, has been conducting such a crusade against the misuse of significance testing for over 25 years. This book presents their argument, gives lots of examples of the adverse consequences of misuse, and provides some history of the controversy, which dates from the origins of mathematical statistics."—Ron P. Smith,Journal of Economic Issues(Ron P. SmithJournal of Economic Issues20090101)"The Cult of Statistical Significancehas virtues that extend beyond its core message. It is clearly written and should be accessible to those who have neither formal training in statistics nor a desire to secure any. It is full of examples that illustrate why it is the strength of relationships and not their statistical significance that mainly matters."—Richard Lempert,Law and Social Inquiry(Richard LempertLaw and Social Inquiry20090101)"A clear trade-off: how much confidence [in a result] is "enough" depends on the costs of further research and the benefits of extra precision. Ziliak and his co-author Deirdre McCloskey argue inThe Cult of Statistical Significancethat most academic disciplines have forgotten this trade-off . . . A sharp line for statistical significance makes no sense, and it has a cost."—Tim Harford,The Financial Times(Tim HarfordFinancial Times20090207)"If not Fisherian significance, what should be the Holy Grail of statistics? (Theodore PorterScience20090605)"The book is a model of scholarship, transparent in its method, wide-reaching in its disciplinary expertise, and highly literate, including occasional haiku poems and humor such as, 'If the variable doesn't fit/you may not have to acquit.' The authors convincingly argue that environmental quality, jobs, and even lives are at stake."—M. H. Maier, Glendale Community College,Choice(M. H. MaierChoice20091021)