Question

Alternative hypothesis represents the prior belief with the data. True or False? Why?

Answer 1

A hypothesis is some statement about a population parameter or about a population distribution.If the population is large,there is no way of analysing the population or testing the hypothesis directly.So, the hypothesis is tested on the basis of the outcome of a random sample.

While testing the hypothesis ,only one of the hypothesis is always true.One pair is called null hypothesis and the other alternative hypothesis.

Null hypothesis is called by that name because many times accepting null would lead to taking null or no action.

Alternative hypothesis is the contradictory of null hypothesis statement.

The null hypothesis is represented as H0 and alternative as H1.

For Eg H0:$\mu$$\leq$20

H1:$\mu$>20

Here only one can be true after testing of the hypothesis. If mean is lesser than or equal to 20, then null hypothesis is true and if Mean is greater than 20, alternative hypothesis is true.

so the statement alternative hypothesis represents prior belief with the data is false because unless tested statistically we cant say if alternative hypothesis is true.