238 • Big Data Analytics
one-tailed and two-tailed tests. Statistical signicance is the threshold
value that divides an eect large enough to consider the null hypothesis
rejected and one with a sucient likelihood of occurring due to chance it
is safer to leave the null hypothesis in place.
is threshold for statistical signicance is somewhat arbitrary. For psy-
chology, the social sciences, and medical studies, the previously discussed
p value of .05 (5%) is the standard threshold for statistical signicance.
Such a threshold is called the signicance level. In hard sciences, for which
more linear and direct cause and eect relationships are normal, p values
of .01 (a 1% chance of the event occurring through chance) or .005 (a prob-
abil ...