Few principles are as essential to the education of developing scientists as the role of the
null hypothesis in inferential statistics and research in general. This is often taught as directly
analogous to the principle of being considered innocent in a court of law until proven guilty.
In at least some cases, the consequences of ignoring this scientific principle and embracing
an alternate hypothesis without sufficient proof can be substantial, and equivalent to a
premature assumption of guilt. Consider, for example, the hypothesis that vaccinations …