- #1
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Hi,
I am in AP Biology, and I completely understand how to use chi squared to the level the AP exam and class requires, but I do not completely understand why p-values work the way they do. I have done a lot of research, and I think I may have an idea as to how this works. Can you please tell me if I am correct or not, and if not why? Thank you in advance!
For this, consider we go to a remote island, and we look at right- and left-handedness. Our null hypothesis is that there is no natural favor between being right- and left-handed, i.e. the distribution is 50/50. The alternative hypothesis is thus that nature favors either right- or left-handedness. We calculate a chi squared and then find a p-value. Is this how we would interpret our results?:
Chance that there is no favor: p
Chance that there is a favor: 1-p
If we use the .05 threshold and we get a p-value of .06, there is only a 6% chance the null hypothesis is correct, but we still accept it because we would rather say there is no favor if there is one than say there is one if there isn't, right? If we wanted the other way around, i.e. to rather say there is a favor when there is not than say there is no favor when there is, we would use the left-tailed test (p=0.95 threshold), right?
I am in AP Biology, and I completely understand how to use chi squared to the level the AP exam and class requires, but I do not completely understand why p-values work the way they do. I have done a lot of research, and I think I may have an idea as to how this works. Can you please tell me if I am correct or not, and if not why? Thank you in advance!
For this, consider we go to a remote island, and we look at right- and left-handedness. Our null hypothesis is that there is no natural favor between being right- and left-handed, i.e. the distribution is 50/50. The alternative hypothesis is thus that nature favors either right- or left-handedness. We calculate a chi squared and then find a p-value. Is this how we would interpret our results?:
Chance that there is no favor: p
Chance that there is a favor: 1-p
If we use the .05 threshold and we get a p-value of .06, there is only a 6% chance the null hypothesis is correct, but we still accept it because we would rather say there is no favor if there is one than say there is one if there isn't, right? If we wanted the other way around, i.e. to rather say there is a favor when there is not than say there is no favor when there is, we would use the left-tailed test (p=0.95 threshold), right?