Understanding Statistical Significance: A Conceptual History

Journal of Technical Writing and Communication Oct 2001

Understanding Statistical Significance: A Conceptual History

Joseph Little University of California, Santa Barbara

Abstract

Few concepts in the social sciences have wielded more discriminatory power over the status of knowledge claims than that of statistical significance. Currently operationalized as a = 0.05, statistical significance frequently separates publishable from nonpublishable research, renewable from nonrenewable grants, and, in the eyes of many, experimental success from failure. If literacy is envisioned as a sort of competence in a set of social and intellectual practices, then scientific literacy must encompass the realization that this cardinal arbiter of social scientific knowledge was not born out of an immanent logic of mathematics but socially constructed and reconstructed in response to sociohistoric conditions.

Journal: Journal of Technical Writing and Communication
Published: 2001-10-01
DOI: 10.2190/tul8-x9n5-n000-8lkv
Open Access: Closed
Topics: quantitative research multilingual writers

Citation Context

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Cites in this index (3)

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CrossRef global citation count: 8 View in citation network →