What does it mean for results to be statistically significant?

Question

BlackTom AI · Accepted Answer

To unpack what 'statistically significant' means, let's examine each option in turn.
Option 1: They have important social implications. While significant results can influence policy or practice, statistical significance itself does not guarantee social importance; it's about the probability that the observed effect would occur if there were no real effect, not about practical or social relevance.
Option 2: They are unlikely to occur by chance. This is essentially the definition: a p-value below a threshold indicates the observed effect is unlikely under the null hypothesis, i.e., unlikely to be due to random chance.
Option 3: They have high construct validity. Construct validity concerns whether the test measures what it intends to measure; statistical significance does not address measurement validity directly, so this is not the definition of significance.
Option 4: They are likely to be replicated. Significance in one sample does not guarantee replication; replication depends on effect size, sample, variability, and other factors. Statistical significance can fail to replicate under different conditions.

PSY 1001 (001) Exam 1

What does it mean for results to be statistically significant?

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