Jan 26 2009
When the Null is News
I love this finding – The Un-favorite Child: Adults Who Perceived Parents As Being Lenient With Siblings Still Happy Later In Life
Yes, null findings are news, yet they far too infrequently get reported. Worded another way, results that don’t rise to the level of statistical significance are significant in another way.
As for this psychological study -
Researchers found that between siblings in the same family, the effects of recalled negative early experiences such as conflict with parents and levels of discipline seem to have little influence over psychological well-being in mid-life.
To look for a connection between two variables and find one is noteworthy. As too is looking and not finding. If there isn’t a Journal of Null Results out there, someone ought to start one.
[...] Please imagine that that was graceful. Andrew of The Evolving Mind brought us the happy news of a paper published that gives a null result which may surprise you. Finding no relationship between variables is worth noting! I wrote about [...]