SHOULD SIGNIFICANCE TESTS BE BANNED - INTRODUCTION TO A SPECIAL SECTION EXPLORING THE PROS AND CONS

Significance testing of null hypotheses is the standard epistemologica l method for advancing scientific knowledge in psychology, even though it has drawbacks and it leads to common inferential mistakes. These m istakes include accepting the null hypothesis when it fails to be reje cted, automatically interpreting rejected null hypotheses as theoretic ally, meaningful, and failing to consider the likelihood of Type II er rors. Although these mistakes have been discussed repeatedly for decad es, there is no evidence that the academic discussion has had an impac t. A group of methodologists is proposing a new approach: simply ban s ignificance rests in psychology journals. The impact of a similar ban in public-health and epidemiology journals is reported.