Bootstrapping penalty analysis is a method that allows you to perform statistical testing on the results of a penalty analysis, using a technique called bootstrapping to estimate variances and covariances. Recall that the purpose of penalty analysis is to identify attributes that appear to have a strong impact on Overall Liking, on a product-by-product basis.. However, there are no significance procedures to test the significance of each attribute's effect on Overall Liking. The bootstrap method, is a well-established computer-based Monte Carlo technique for determining an estimate for the standard errors, confidence intervals, biases, and prediction errors.