Question

The meaning of significance. Asked to explain the meaning of "statistically significant at the α=0.05 level," a student says: "This means that the probability that the null hypothesis is true is less than 0.05." Is this explanation correct? Why or why not?

Answer 1

Answer:

This explanation is not correct

Explanation:

Significance level is the probability that the null hypothesis rejected is in fact true. If we say there is a significance level of 0.10 or 10%(α=0.10 level) then there is a 10% chance of incorrectly rejecting the null hypothesis when there is actually no difference.

If we wish to reach a conclusion on rejection or acceptance of the null hypothesis, we could use the p value(the probability that observed results or more extremee results are true given null hypothesis)which we compare with the significance level to conclude. If the significance level is 0.10 and p value is 0.07(since p value is less than significance level) , we reject the null hypothesis and vice versa.