I’m hearing this phrase a lot in my meetings and from what I gather, it’s basically the number an analysis needs in order to reach a calculated conclusion. Basically more data = closer to stat sig?
In: Mathematics
So let’s imagine we flip coin ten times and count the number of heads and tails. Now we know what the probability of a heads or tails in a single flip of a totally fair coin is 50%, so ten flips should lead to 5 heads and 5 tails. However let’s say we get 8 heads and 2 tails. Now this seems like an interesting data set, because we went from a theoretical expected count of 50% heads to a actual count of 80% heads in our sample. However we can’t be sure is this result is just due to randomness, or if it is actually telling us something about this coin, like it is weighted so heads is more likely. The point of this example is to show that in real life, there are numerous observations we can make and ask the question, “Did this occur due to pure chance or is there a specific cause?”
Essentially, we use the term statistically significant to indicate that a certain result that has been observed is extremely unlikely to have occured due to chance, and has a specific cause.
Also, more data doesn’t necessarily mean it’s statistically significant. Depending on how the data was collected, there could be biases that lead to a result that may not be accurate.
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