AngryParsley comments on lessmeta - Less Wrong

6 Post author: PlaidX 22 December 2009 05:57PM

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Comment author: AngryParsley 23 December 2009 01:49:37AM *  0 points [-]

p(test_positive|itchyballitis) = 0.95

p(test_positive|!itchyballitis) = 0.05

p(itchyballitis) = 0.01

p(test_positive) = p(test_positive|itchyballitis) * p(itchyballitis) + p(test_positive|!itchyballitis) * p(!itchiballitis)

= 0.95 * 0.01 + 0.05 * 0.99

= 0.059

p(itchyballitis|test_positive) = (p(test_positive|itchyballitis) * p(itchyballitis)) / p(test_positive)

= (0.95 * 0.01) / 0.059

= 0.161

Edit: If anyone else is thinking of writing math stuff in a comment, don't do what I did. Read http://wiki.lesswrong.com/wiki/Comment_formatting first! Also, thanks Vladimir_Nesov.

Comment author: Vladimir_Nesov 23 December 2009 03:45:16AM 5 points [-]

It's more intuitive to use odds. Prior odds are 1:99, likelihood ratio (strength of evidence) given by a positive test is 95:5, so posterior odds are (1:99)*(95:5)=19:99, or probability of 19/118 (about 16%).