Statistical Significance vs. non-significant

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What exactly does it mean when a result is statistically significant vs. insignificant? When we compare, for example, a t-stat and the critical t-value, I know we either reject or fail to reject the null hypothesis based on whether the t-stat is less than or greater than the t-value. What exactly does it mean when the t-stat is greater than the critical t-value? What even is the “t-stat” and “critical t-value” in layman terms?

After doing enough problems, I’m sure I’ll get it, but I don’t like _not_ being able to explain this to myself simply – which indicates that I haven’t understood it well enough. Can someone please dumb all of this down for me and truly explain it to me like I’m a child?

In: Mathematics

9 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

Nonsignificant – could just be noise. X and Y can’t be said to be different.

Statistically significant – can be said to be different. Might or might not be a big difference, but X and Y are not the same.

Probably better explanations out there.

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