Questions: Foundations of Quantitative Research Techniques and Statistics - Post-Test Quantitative Research Techniques and Statistics - Introduction To Hypothesis Testing Which of the following is a rule violation in hypothesis testing? A That it must be rejected at any level. B That we reject the null hypothesis. C That there is not sufficient evidence to support the alternative hypothesis. D That we accept the null hypothesis.

The answer is A: That it must be rejected at any level.

Explanation for each option:

A. That it must be rejected at any level.

• This is a rule violation in hypothesis testing. Hypothesis testing involves determining whether there is enough evidence to reject the null hypothesis at a specific significance level (e.g., 0.05). It is not correct to state that the null hypothesis must be rejected at any level, as this disregards the importance of the significance level and the evidence provided by the data.

B. That we reject the null hypothesis.

• This is not a rule violation. Rejecting the null hypothesis is a possible outcome of hypothesis testing if the evidence (data) supports it at the chosen significance level.

C. That there is not sufficient evidence to support the alternative hypothesis.

• This is also not a rule violation. If the data does not provide sufficient evidence to support the alternative hypothesis, we fail to reject the null hypothesis. This is a standard outcome in hypothesis testing.

D. That we accept the null hypothesis.

• This is a common misconception but not necessarily a rule violation. In hypothesis testing, we typically say we "fail to reject" the null hypothesis rather than "accept" it, because failing to reject does not prove the null hypothesis is true; it simply means there is not enough evidence against it. However, this phrasing is more about precision in language rather than a strict rule violation.

In summary, option A is the correct answer because it represents a fundamental misunderstanding of the hypothesis testing process.