Base rate fallacy
Builds on Bayes' theoremLaw of total probability for an event and its complement
Example
A disease affects of a population. A test is positive for of the sick people and for of the healthy people. Let be the event "sick" and the event "positive test". Then , and . By the law of total probability, . By Bayes' theorem, . So only about of the people with a positive test are sick. This is true although the test is right for of the sick and for of the healthy.
Remarks
The base rate fallacy is the error to ignore the base rate and to take to be close to . When the condition is rare, most positive results are false positives, even for a good test.
Reading path
To understand this page from the ground up, read these 42 pages in order. The foundations come first.
- Construction of the reals from Cauchy sequences concept
- Element definition
- Integers object
- Ordered field definition
- Proposition concept
- Random experiment concept
- Rational numbers object
- Set definition
- Ring of integers statement
- Conjunction definition
- Disjunction definition
- Implication definition
- Predicate definition
- Empty set object
- Family of sets definition
- Intersection definition
- Union definition
- Sample space definition
- The rationals form a field statement
- Existential quantifier definition
- Universal quantifier definition
- Disjoint sets definition
- Subset definition
- Union of a family of sets definition
- The rationals form an ordered field statement
- Universal set definition
- Partition of a set definition
- Power set definition
- Order on the reals definition
- Complement definition
- Interval definition
- Sigma-algebra definition
- Event definition
- Probability axioms concept
- Probability measure definition
- Probability space definition
- Conditional probability definition
- Probability of the complement statement
- Law of total probability statement
- Bayes' theorem statement
- Law of total probability for an event and its complement statement
- Base rate fallacy example
Further reading
- Web https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Base_rate_fallacy, False positive paradox
About this page
| Tag | 0E44JMG6NV |
|---|---|
| URI | m2://0E44JMG6NV |
| Aliases | base-rate-neglect, false-positive-paradox |
| Kind | example |
| Writing | W0 stub |
| MSC | 62F15 |
| Uses | Bayes' theorem, Law of total probability for an event and its complement |
| Same as |
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