B E 2100 Lecture Notes - Lecture 8: Normal Distribution, Null Hypothesis, Type I And Type Ii Errors
19 Jul 2018
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In a trial a jury must decide between two hypotheses. The null hypothesis is: h0: the defendant is innocent, the alternative hypothesis or research hypothesis is, h1: the defendant is guilty, the jury does not know which hypothesis is true. They must make a decision on the basis of evidence presented: nonstatistical hypothesis testing. In the language of statistics convicting the defendant is called rejecting the null hypothesis in favor of the alternative hypothesis. That is, the jury is saying that there is enough evidence to conclude that the defendant is guilty (i. e. , there is enough evidence to support the alternative hypothesis). If the jury acquits it is stating that there is not enough evidence to support the alternative hypothesis. Notice that the jury is not saying that the defendant is innocent, only that there is not enough evidence to support the alternative hypothesis.
