[Ads-l] p-hacking

[Geoffrey Nathan]

I agree with Dan here. I’ve been seeing this term for a year or two, in concert with the developing literature on the ‘replication crisis’ in the social sciences. In fact, I read something yesterday that the issue had started to be discussed in the ‘hard sciences’ too. Forget what branch of science it was—it may have been microbiology.



Geoff



Geoffrey S. Nathan

Professor Emeritus and Retired Chief Privacy Officer

Wayne State University

Detroit, Michigan



________________________________
From: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU> on behalf of Dan Goncharoff <thegonch at GMAIL.COM>
Sent: Monday, October 8, 2018 3:12:14 PM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: p-hacking

---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Poster:       Dan Goncharoff <thegonch at GMAIL.COM>
Subject:      Re: p-hacking
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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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