When are Bayesian methods preferable to Frequentist?

In this respect, Bayesian inference is more intuitive at its core and in closer alignment with our natural mode of probabilistic reasoning than frequentist inference. For example, we are more interested in the probability that 1 treatment is superior to another (Bayesian probability) than in the probability of obtaining certain data assuming the tr... See more

Frequentist inference begins by assuming a null hypothesis to be true before data are collected (eg, that there is no effect of a particular treatment on survival). Investigators then collect data, analyze them, and ask, “How surprising is my result if there is actually no effect of the treatment on survival?” The data would be surprising if there ... See more

Fisher and his contemporaries had no problem with the formula called Bayes’s theorem per se, which is just a simple mathematical identity. Instead, they were worried about how it might be applied. In particular, they took issue with the notion of the Bayesian prior.46 It all seemed too subjective: we have to stipulate, in advance, how likely we thi

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