Journal bans null hypothesis significance tests

(This article was originally published at Doing Bayesian Data Analysis, and syndicated at StatsBlogs.)

In a recent editorial [here], the journal Basic and Applied Social Psychology has banned the null hypothesis significance testing procedure (NHSTP). "We hope and anticipate that banning the NHSTP will have the effect of increasing the quality of submitted manuscripts by liberating authors from the stultified structure of NHSTP thinking thereby eliminating an important obstacle to creative thinking. The NHSTP has dominated psychology for decades; we hope that by instituting the first NHSTP ban, we demonstrate that psychology does not need the crutch of the NHSTP, and that other journals follow suit."

In a short bit about Bayesian analysis, the editorial says, "The usual problem with Bayesian procedures is that they depend on some sort of Laplacian assumption to generate numbers where none exist." I think here the editors are too focused on Bayesian hypothesis tests instead of on the much broader application of Bayesian methods to parameter estimation. For example, in the 750 pages of DBDA2E, I never mention the Laplacian assumption because the procedures do not depend on it. Despite their narrow view of Bayesian methods, I am encouraged by the bold move that might help dislodge NHST.

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