Misconceptions of the p-value among Chilean and Italian Academic Psychologists.
Common misconceptions of p-values are based on certain beliefs and attributions about the significance of the results. Thus, they affect the professionals' decisions and jeopardize the quality of interventions and the accumulation of valid scientific knowledge. We conducted a survey on 164 academic psychologists (134 Italian, 30 Chilean) questioned on this topic. Our findings are consistent with previous research and suggest that some participants do not know how to correctly interpret p-values. The inverse probability fallacy presents the greatest comprehension problems, followed by the replication fallacy. These results highlight the importance of the statistical re-education of researchers. Recommendations for improving statistical cognition are proposed.
Department of Methodology of the Behavioral Sciences, University of Valencia Valencia, Spain.
Laura
L
Badenes-Ribera
Department of Methodology of the Behavioral Sciences, University of Valencia Valencia, Spain.
Dolores
D
Frias-Navarro
Veterinary and Prevention Department, University of Turin Turin, Italy.
Bryan
B
Iotti
Department of Methodology of the Behavioral Sciences, University of Valencia Valencia, Spain.
Amparo
A
Bonilla-Campos
Department of Psychology, University of TurinTurin, Italy; Research Center on Development and Educational, Faculdade Européia de VitòriaCariacica, Brazil.
Claudio
C
Longobardi
education; high education; p-value misconceptions; statistical cognition; survey