Open Science Community Event: P-hacking and a Fishing Expedition

Time: September 9 at 9.30 AM
Place: KH149 (PUB 1st floor) 

We will have an open discussion about p-hacking. P-hacking refers to the practice of searching for statistical significance through repeated testing on large datasets. Closely related is the idea of a fishing expedition, where researchers explore data without a clear, pre-specified hypothesis, testing numerous associations in the hope of stumbling upon something significant. While these practices can sometimes yield results that appear meaningful, they often produce spurious findings that can misguide research, social practice, and even policy-making. For these reasons, p-hacking is something researchers should take care to avoid.

Teaching students about these practices is important, but not without challenges. After all, p-hacking can still seem appealing: a paper with significant results is often easier to publish, regardless of how the results were obtained. And sometimes the temptation to keep searching is personal—for example, what if you find that standing up against discrimination toward ethnic minorities does not appear to help those minorities? Such results may feel deeply counterintuitive, encouraging further (and potentially inappropriate) digging for significance.
So, how should we best educate students about the pitfalls of p-hacking and fishing expeditions? How to prevent ourselves from engaging in the practice- and when is something actually p-hacking? Lets discuss this together on September 9!