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Hypothesis Testing demystified
How to translate Math into plain English
Hypothesis testing is probably the most rewarding stage of a statistical study. It is the point where you get to the conclusions, where you (can) find answers to the questions you were searching answers for. These should be in the form of simple yes/no questions. Hypothesis testing is the stage of a statistical study in which you are translating math into English.
Hypothesis testing is, most probably, what your boss wants from you if you are in the role of a statistician. If you go to him and just say something like: “µ1 = 135 and µ2 = 140”, then he/she may say: “OK. But… what do these numbers mean for my business? Is it good? Is it bad?”. It would be much better to tell him something like: “I found statistical evidence that your new marketing strategy brought us more profit than the previous one”.
At this point, of hypothesis testing, it is time for you to turn all those nasty numbers obtained so far from your dataset into easy to understand statements about your problem of interest.
A comparison with Proof by contradiction
Hypothesis testing has some similarities with one of the simplest methods of proof from mathematical logic: Proof by contradiction. Hypothesis testing can be thought of as…
