Abstract
Although living organisms are affected by many interrelated and unidentified variables, this complexity does not automatically impose a fundamental limitation on statistical inference. Nor need one invoke such complexity as an explanation of the “Truth Wears Off” or “decline” effect; similar “decline” effects occur with far simpler systems studied in physics. Selective reporting and publication bias, and scientists’ biases in favor of reporting eye-catching results (in general) or conforming to others’ results (in physics) better explain this feature of the “Truth Wears Off” effect than Rabin’s suggested limitation on statistical inference.
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Thomas, D.M. A Not-So-Fundamental Limitation on Studying Complex Systems with Statistics: Comment on Rabin (2011). J Stat Phys 149, 1168–1171 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10955-012-0647-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10955-012-0647-y