Re:Lung Cancer and the Power of Suggestion
by greenyoda on Sunday February 10, 2013 @05:35PM
(#5198280)
The correlation could also be due to a flaw in your experimental design (e.g., something in your lab is contaminating your samples, or the researcher has an unconscious bias that skews measurements in a particular direction), in which case repeating the same experiments will not solve the problem.
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Sure, there's loads of ways an experiment can be flawed. But also, it might not be flawed. If you're got a good experiment that shows correlation, then it has to be one of the 3 results above.
Re:Lung Cancer and the Power of Suggestion
by ceejayoz on Monday February 11, 2013 @05:16PM
(#5203692)
No, it is statistically most likely to be one of the 3 results above. "Has to be" doesn't have much of a place in a statistics discussion. There is a non-zero probability of the correlation being due to chance.