Large samples produce significant correlations that explain little variance

Evidence

The larger samples used in Study 2 have the advantage that they are more likely to be representative of the population, but they are also more likely to produce significant correlations that explain little variance. — Roderick M. Kramer, Geoffrey J. Leonardelli, Robert W. Livingston, Social Cognition, Social Identity, and…, 1036

Categorization

• DEFINE: Concise statement of the large-sample significance-vs-effect-size tradeoff, useful as a citation for methodological arguments.
• XREF: connects to: A finite sample’s variance cannot distinguish a fat-tailed from an infinite-variance distribution — Donald MacKenzie, An Engine, Not a Camera: How Financial…, 499; Big data correlations alone cannot deliver causal knowledge to prediction systems — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 930; Correlations without an encompassing concept yield no real knowledge — Byung-Chul Han, Psychopolitics: Neoliberalism and New…, 160