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p value
A p value < 0.05 represents a < 5% chance a result is a result of chance alone.
A p value < 0.05 is most often used as the threshold of statistical significance.
Notes:
In statistics, a value very close to the probability of making a Type I error, the error of rejecting a true null hypothesis.
A null hypothesis means no statistical significance, with any differences in populations or samples being due to chance.
To make a Type I error is to find statistical significance when it is not there, as in mistaking chance results for treatment effects.
For findings to be statistically significant, the probability of making a Type I error must be small, the smaller the better.
The traditional cutoff value is 5%.
If a p value is 5% or less (p < 0.05), the null hypothesis can be rejected & there is statistical significance.
Proposal to lower p-value threshold for significance to 0.005 [1]
References
- Ioannidis JPA.
The Proposal to Lower P Value Thresholds to .005.
JAMA. Published online March 22, 2018
PMID: 29566133
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2676503