Statistical significance
Definition
Statistical significance refers to whether an observed result in an experiment or study could have occurred by chance alone or if it represents a real effect.
Analogy
Imagine you're playing basketball and your friend claims they can make 90% of their free throws. To test this claim, you decide to observe them shooting 10 free throws. If they make all 10 shots, it would be statistically significant evidence that their claim is true. However, if they only make 5 out of 10 shots, it would suggest that their claim might not be accurate.
Related terms
Hypothesis testing: A process of making decisions about a population based on sample data.
Type II error: Failing to reject the null hypothesis when it is actually false.
Confidence level: The probability that a confidence interval will contain the true population parameter.
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