Decisions about the Level of Significance (alpha level) may be different in different contexts.The magnitude of the alpha level in the hard sciences is usually very different than in the social sciences.For example, statistical tests for a medical trial for cancer treatments are typically conducted at 0.0001.For every 1 out of 10,000 patients there may be issues, sickness or even death.For social science, it is common to use 0.05. We are comfortable with performing research, for example, on students. So we are satisfied with losing 5 out of 100 students or having our results being incorrect 5 out of 100 times.

Do you agree with these alpha levels? Why or why not? What if your child's education and the teacher assigned to him/her would be successful no more than 95 out of 100 times?