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false positive test result

— Mistakenly concluding that there is a difference in effect between treatments, or between treatment and no treatment, when there is actually no difference


Synonyms:

alpha, false positive, type 1 error

Full explanation:

Sometimes a statistical analysis of a treatment comparison will suggest that the treatments compared have differential effects when in fact they do not.

This false positive result is sometimes called a Type 1 error, or alpha, which describes the likelihood of concluding that a difference exists when it does not.

See also:

statistical power

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