Imagine that an international team of medical researchers hypothesized that a new drug might cure a lifethreatening
Question:
Imagine that an international team of medical researchers hypothesized that a new drug might cure a lifethreatening disease. They test their hypothesis by recruiting 50 participants; half receive the drug, while the other half serve as a control group. At the end of the multi-year study, the researchers fail to reject the null hypothesis, meaning they did not find evidence that the group receiving the drug fared any better than the control group. The researchers, however, are puzzled. Several of the researchers noticed that their older patients improved, whereas their younger patients did not. In hindsight, they can now devise a clear physiological difference between younger and older patients that would explain why the drug works for one group but not the other. When they reanalyze their data based on age, they find that older patients receiving the drug did, indeed, get better, whereas younger patients did not. The researchers write their report, presenting the hypothesis that they would see an age difference as if it were their hypothesis when the study began. Explain how this is an example of HARKing and why it might be dangerous in this particular case.
Step by Step Answer:
Statistics For The Behavioral Sciences
ISBN: 9781319190743
5th Edition
Authors: Susan A. Nolan, Thomas Heinzen