[Ads-l] p-hacking

[Dan Goncharoff]

I would put this closer to the older meaning of computer hack, a way of
getting around a system to obtain something.

In this case, one gets around mathematical methods of determining data
significance.

This is a negative hack, not a positive hack.

On Mon, Oct 8, 2018, 12:57 AM Dave Hause <dwhause at cablemo.net> wrote:

> Might this version of hack be in the sense of a clever way to do
> something,
> similar to NOAD, 2nd, n.: 2. . . .a piece of computer code that performs
> some function, especially an unofficial alternative or addition to a
> commercial program.
> Dave Hause
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: George Thompson
> Sent: Sunday, October 7, 2018 1:15 PM
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Subject: p-hacking
>
> A recent blog post used a term quite unfamiliar to me -- but, then, it
> would be.  But it's not in the OED either.  It appeared in an
> installment of a blog originally issued by NPR under the title
> "Cornell Food Researcher's Downfall Raises Larger Questions For
> Science"; the blog is called FOOD FOR THOUGHT.
> September 26, 20183:07 PM ET
>
> https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2018/09/26/651849441/cornell-food-researchers-downfall-raises-larger-questions-for-science
>
> "There's nothing wrong with having a lot of data and looking at it
> carefully," Althouse says. "The problem is p-hacking."
>
> To understand p-hacking, you need to understand p-values. P-values
> tell you how likely it is that a result from an experiment is due to
> chance or natural variations in the experiment. For example, if you go
> on a diet, the p-value can estimate the chance that the weight you
> lost was the result of natural background fluctuations in your weight
> as opposed to because of your new diet.
>
> P-hacking is when researchers play with data to arrive at results that
> look like they're scientifically significant. For instance, they can
> cherry pick data points, re-analyze the data in multiple ways or stop
> an experiment early.
>
> I suppose the expression is connected with the OED's
> hack, v.3, section 1.  transitive. To make a hack of; to use in an
> indiscriminate way; to make common, stale, or trite by such treatment.
> At least, the phrase in the definition "use in an indiscriminate way"
> seemed appropriate.
>
> GAT
>
> --
> George A. Thompson
> The Guy Who Still Looks Stuff Up in Books.
> Author of A Documentary History of "The African Theatre", Northwestern
> Univ. Pr., 1998.
>
> But when aroused at the Trump of Doom / Ye shall start, bold kings,
> from your lowly tomb. . .
> L. H. Sigourney, "Burial of Mazeen", Poems.  Boston, 1827, p. 112
>
> The Trump of Doom -- also known as The Dunghill Toadstool.  (Here's a
> picture of his great-grandfather.)
>
> http://www.parliament.uk/worksofart/artwork/james-gillray/an-excrescence---a-fungus-alias-a-toadstool-upon-a-dunghill/3851
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
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>
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> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>

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