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Sociology & Social Policy

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ArticleOpen Access http://dx.doi.org/10.26855/ssp.2025.09.003

Welch’s T-test: The Robust Default for Comparing Two Groups in Psychological Research

Robert W. McGee

Fayetteville State University, Fayetteville, NC 28301, USA.

*Corresponding author: Robert W. McGee

Published: August 21, 2025

Abstract

In psychological research, the independent samples t-test (Student’s t-test) is widely used to compare means of two independent groups, but its assumptions of normality and equal variances are often violated, compromising Type I error control. Welch’s t-test, which relaxes the equal variances assumption, provides a robust alternative yet is underutilized despite its advantages. Synthesizing evidence from simulation studies and empirical surveys, this article demonstrates Welch’s t-test’s superior performance in maintaining nominal Type I error rates under unequal variances and sample sizes, with negligible power loss compared to Student’s t-test. It also outperforms the Mann-Whitney U test in heterosce-dastic conditions. Despite its ease of implementation in statistical software, surveys indicate infrequent use and inadequate variance checks in published research. This paper advocates for Welch’s t-test as the default method for two-group comparisons in psychology, supported by practical examples and recommendations for educational reform to enhance statistical rigor. This paper was written with the assistance of Grok 3 an artificial intelligence assistant.

Keyword

Welch’s t-test; Student’s t-test; Mann-Whitney U test; Type I error; Heteroscedas-ticity; Robust statistics; Psychological research; Statistical inference; Beh-rens-Fisher problem; Variance inequality; Simulation studies; Statistical power; Artificial intelligence

References

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Copyright

© 2025 by the author(s).
This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives (CC BY-NC-ND) license, which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited and is not modified or adapted.
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/

How to cite this paper

Welch’s T-test: The Robust Default for Comparing Two Groups in Psychological Research

How to cite this paper: Robert W. McGee. (2025). Welch’s T-test: The Robust Default for Comparing Two Groups in Psychological Research. Sociology & Social Policy, 2(2), 52-58.

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.26855/ssp.2025.09.003