title: Chi-square and Mendel's experiments: where's the bias?
abstract: Mendel has been accused of "cooking" his data to meet a particular hypothesis. The earliest time he could have formulated an hypothesis in the course of his experiments was at the end of the second year of experiments 1 and 2. If he knew what to expect as the result of his first two pea-seed experiments, one might expect the chi-square values of subsequent experiments to exhibit a trend toward smaller values. However, when the individual experiments are, each in turn, subjected to a chi-square test, there is no evidence of the expected trend. With few exceptions, the data show no systematic variation in a particular direction. In our view, the suggestion of bias is not supported.
mesh_terms: D005838:Genotype; D006824:Hybridization, Genetic; D008957:Models, Genetic; D010641:Phenotype; D010944:Plants / Q000235:genetics*