Correct interpretation of a regression coefficient
Brian Smith <[email protected]> Sun, 8 Mar 2026 17:20:35 +0530
| Newsgroups | gmane.comp.lang.r.general |
|---|---|
| Message-ID | <CAHUBDY_FMnKWaq7TtUb=VRB+xGRDf-ti7UBs=hE+AyQtYn99og@mail.gmail.com> |
Hi, My question is not directly related to R, but rather a basic question about statistics. I am hoping to receive valuable insights from the expert statisticians in this group. In some cases, when fitting a simple OLS regression, I obtain an estimated beta coefficient that is very small—for example, 0.00034—yet it still appears statistically significant based on the p-value. I am trying to understand how to interpret such a result in practical terms. From a magnitude perspective, such a small coefficient would not be expected to meaningfully affect the predicted response value, but statistically it is still considered significant. I would greatly appreciate any insights or explanations regarding this phenomenon. Thanks for your time.