diff --git a/src/pyhf/infer/calculators.py b/src/pyhf/infer/calculators.py
index 6cd398e85e..49aa11edb3 100644
--- a/src/pyhf/infer/calculators.py
+++ b/src/pyhf/infer/calculators.py
@@ -771,10 +771,11 @@ def expected_pvalues(self, sig_plus_bkg_distribution, bkg_only_distribution):
         # c.f. Issue #815, PR #817
         import numpy as np
 
-        _percentiles = [2.27501319, 15.86552539, 50.0, 84.13447461, 97.72498681]
+        # percentiles for -2, -1, 0, 1, 2 standard deviations of the Normal distribution
+        normal_percentiles = [2.27501319, 15.86552539, 50.0, 84.13447461, 97.72498681]
         pvalues_exp_band = np.percentile(
             tb.tolist(pvalues),
-            _percentiles,
+            normal_percentiles,
             axis=0,
         ).T.tolist()
         return pvalues_exp_band