A method to streamline p-hacking

Abstract

The analytic strategy of p-hacking has rapidly accelerated the achievement of psychological scientists’ goals (e.g., publications & tenure), but has suffered a number of setbacks in recent years. In order to remediate this, this article presents a statistical inference measure that can greatly accelerate and streamline the p-hacking process: generating random numbers that are < .05. I refer to this approach as p_ointless. Results of a simulation study are presented and an R script is provided for others to use. In the absence of systemic changes to modal p-hacking practices within psychological science (e.g., worrying trends such as preregistration and replication), I argue that vast amounts of time and research funding could be saved through the widespread adoption of this innovative approach.