Changing the default for show.signif.stars should be sufficient to ensure
that, if people are going to get themselves into trouble, they will have to
do it on purpose.  It's just a visual cue; removing it will not remove the
underlying issue, namely blind acceptance of unlikely null models and
distributions.

For any complex problem, there is a solution that is simple, elegant, and
wrong.  As grants and careers can depend on these magic numbers, Upton
Sinclair might save everyone some trouble... It is difficult to get a man
to understand something, when his salary depends upon his not
understanding.

stringsAsFactors, however, is responsible for an endless stream of mildly
irritating misunderstandings, and defaulting that to FALSE would be very
nice.

Just my $0.02.  Defaults are one of the most powerful forces in the
universe.

Also, I liked your book.



On Sat, Feb 9, 2013 at 10:48 AM, Norm Matloff <matloff@cs.ucdavis.edu>wrote:

> Thanks for bringing this up, Frank.
>
> Since many of us are "educators," I'd like to suggest a bolder approach.
> Discontinue even offering the stars as an option.  Sadly, we can't stop
> reporting p-values, as the world expects them, but does R need to cater
> to that attitude by offering star display?  For that matter, why not
> have R report confidence intervals as a default?
>
> Many years ago, I wrote a short textbook on stat, and included a
> substantial section on the dangers of significance testing.  All three
> internal reviewers liked it, but the funny part is that all three said,
> "I agree with this, but no one else will." :-)
>
> Norm
>
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> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-devel
>



-- 
*A model is a lie that helps you see the truth.*
*
*
Howard Skipper<http://cancerres.aacrjournals.org/content/31/9/1173.full.pdf>

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