&gt; by simply showing that things are equal.<p>Statistics do not work like this.  You either positively reject the null hypothesis (i.e.:  &quot;these things are different&quot;) or you <i>fail to reject</i> the null hypothesis (i.e.:  &quot;I cannot assert these are different&quot;).<p>Formally speaking, I am doing the latter.<p>Informally speaking, everybody else understood my point as a rebuttal to OP&#x27;s.  More explicitly:  &quot;claims of X seem grossly exaggerated&quot; should be taken as &quot;I haven&#x27;t seen compelling evidence for X&quot; -- it may be awkwardly phrased, but I suspect you know exactly what I meant.