Even if you’re not a professional researcher or scientist, you might have at some point here about a study or research finding on the news that claims that something is statistically “significant.” You might have wondered what this means, and why it matters. If you’re a researcher, you might have wondered about why ¬the idea...Read More

Mediation and Moderation are often confused topics. Here, I’ll talk about the differences between the two and what they’re statistically testing. Put simply: Moderation attempts to show that a variable changes the relationship between X and Y. Mediation attempts to show that a variable is the channel through which X influences Y.​ Moderation Moderate is just a fancy word for “changed” or...Read More

The new deadly sins When researchers have wiggle room that allows them to snoop or fish around with their methods and data, their results don’t hold water. This extra flexibility allows folks to fish around until they find the methods/data analysis that gives the desired results. For example, researchers may make outcome-friendly decisions with questions...Read More