Statistical Analysis with Excel For Dummies, 5th Edition

Chapter 22

Ten (12, Actually) Statistical and Graphical Tips and Traps

IN THIS CHAPTER

Determining significance

Being wary of graphs

Being cautious with regression

Using concepts carefully

Using the iPad

The world of statistics is full of pitfalls, but it’s also full of opportunities. Whether you’re a user of statistics or someone who has to interpret them, it’s possible to fall into the pitfalls. It’s also possible to walk around them. Here are 10 (okay, 12) tips and traps from the areas of hypothesis testing, regression, correlation, and graphs.

Significant Doesn't Always Mean Important

As I say earlier in this book, significance is, in many ways, a poorly chosen term. When a statistical test yields a significant result and the decision is to reject H₀, that doesn’t guarantee that the study behind the data is an important one. Statistics can only help decision making about numbers and inferences about the processes that produced them. They can’t make those processes important ...