Question

Two alternatives to buffer against psychological frailties in the interpretation of data are

• use of a specified p-value for the Type I error rate (typically 0.05), or

• routine use of confidence intervals.

Which of these two alternatives is better in your opinion? Why?

Answer 1

Use of a specified p-value for the Type I error rate (typically 0.05) is better.

REASON:

Use of a p-value and the use of confidence intervals both approaches give the same results when testing hypotheses. The p-value approach is better in the respect that we have to compute one value, i.e., the p-value, compare with and draw the conclusion. However, in the use of confidence interval approach, we have to compute the test statistic and find the critical value corresponding to the given confidence level.