Quick statistical comment

A reporter pointed me to an article to be published in a scientific journal and asked if I thought the statistics were OK.

I took a quick look and replied:

I did not look at the paper in detail but it seemed reasonable to me. The only part of it that I would not take seriously is the paragraph which starts, “We considered two possible alternative explanations…” Here they’re playing the usual game of sifting through statistical significance to tell stories, and that’s a mug’s game.

But the person who you should really ask about this study is **, who is an expert on ** and has studied topics such as **.

I’m sharing this with you just to give a sense that it’s possible to offer partial criticism, expending a small amount of effort and helping a small amount.

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