Question

In a random sample of high school seniors, the proportion who use text messaging was 0.88. In a random sample of high school freshmen, this proportion was 0.68. Researchers found the difference in proportions to be statistically significant and obtained one of the following numbers for the p-value. Which is it?

a. 1.5
b. 0.02
c. 0.78
d. 0.30

Answer 1

b. 0.02

Explanation:

The smaller the p-value, the stronger the evidence that you should reject the null hypothesis. In this case, this will mean rejecting that the proportions are not significantly different.

Usually, a p-value is considered to be statistically significant when p ≤ 0.05.

From the answer options provided, alternative b. 0.02 is the only one that represents the difference in proportions to be statistically significant (there is only a 2% chance that the proportions are not significantly different).

Therefore, the answer is b. 0.02