Question

You collect data to answer the research question, “Are high school boys involved in more automobile accidents than high school girls?” After conducting a hypothesis test, you conclude that there is sufficient evidence to reject the null hypothesis at α = 0.05. Use complete sentences to answer the following.

a. What were your null and alternative hypotheses in words?

b. State your conclusion pertaining to real-life in words.

c. If this conclusion is actually NOT correct, what type of error is this? State the correct conclusion in words.

d. What are some possible consequences of this error?

e. How might you change the alpha level to reduce this type of error? Explain.

Answer 1

a. Null hypothesis : High school boys are involved in less or equal automobile accidents than high school girls.

Alternative hypothesis : High school boys are involved in more automobile accidents than high school girls.

b. Since, we are rejecting null hypothesis at alpha = 0.05, we conclude that High school boys are involved in more automobile accidents than high school girls

c. If this conclusion is actually NOT correct, Type 1 error is there.

In this case we conclude that High school boys are involved in less or equal automobile accidents than high school girls.

d. The consequence of this type of error is that if the null hypothesis is false, it may be more difficult to reject using a low value for alpha. Sometimes there may be serious consequences of each alternative, so some compromises or weighing priorities may be necessary.

e. Lower values of alpha make it harder to reject the null hypothesis, so choosing lower values for alpha can reduce the probability of a Type I error.