22.40 Why should the significance level matter? On June 15, 2005, an article by Lawrence K. Altman appeared in the New York Times. The title of the article was “Studies Rebut Earlier Report on Pledges of Virginity.” The article began by stating the following: “Challenging earlier findings, two studies from the Heritage Foundation reported yesterday that young people who took virginity pledges had lower rates of acquiring sexually transmitted diseases and engaged in fewer risky sexual behaviors.” The new findings were based on the same national survey used by earlier studies and conducted by the Department of Health and Human Services. But the authors of the new study used different methods of statistical analysis from those in an earlier one that was widely publicized, making direct comparisons difficult. One particular criticism of the new study was that the result of a statistical test at a 0.10 level of significance was reported when journals generally use a lower level of 0.05. Why might this be a concern?