The fallacy of the null-hypothesis significance test.

1960/09/01 by William W. Rozeboom · 5 citations
Mathematics · Psychology · #Statistics Education and Methodologies #Probability and Statistical Research #Fallacy #Null hypothesis #Statistical hypothesis testing #Psychology #Alternative hypothesis #Statistical significance #Null (SQL) #Test (biology) #Null distribution #Statistics #Mathematics #Test statistic #Philosophy #Computer science #Epistemology #Biology #Data mining

paper · doi:10.1037/h0042040

openalex publication_date 1960/09/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/04/05

Abstract

The theory of probability and statistical inference is various things to various people. To the mathematician, it is an intricate formal calculus, to be explored and developed with little professional concern for any empirical significance that might attach to the terms and propositions involved. To the philosopher, it is an embarrassing mystery whose justification and conceptual clarification have remained stubbornly refractory to philosophical insight. (A famous philosophical epigram has it that induction [a special case of statistical

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