On Ziliak and McCloskey: How much of a difference does culture make?
Oliver Morin (International Cognition and Culture, 31 August 2009) talks about The Cult of Statistical Significance.
I just finished Stephen Ziliak and Deirdre McCloskey’s vital pamphlet, The cult of statistical significance: how the standard error is costing us jobs, justice, and lives. These two economic historians did an excellent job of convincing me that everyone in the human sciences (medicine included) should heed their advice and read the book. It’s quite a nice read, too – except when the authors let the gossip and the anecdotes run loose, which makes you feel like you’re squeezed at a conference buffet between two economy professors talking shop and lambasting some unknown colleague. Anyway, the book’s message, old and banal as it can be in certain circles, is a crucial one.
