brazil84 comments on The Bias You Didn't Expect - Less Wrong

92 Post author: Psychohistorian 14 April 2011 04:20PM

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Comment author: brazil84 10 October 2012 11:42:26PM 1 point [-]

The probability of both, in that case, plummets,

That's just not so, since the total of the two probabilities equals one. If the probability of murder with a rifle drops, the probability of murder with a handgun necessarily rises. I'm not sure how to make this point any clearer . . . . perhaps a couple equations will help:

Let's suppose that X and Y are mutually exclusive and collectively exhaustive hypotheses.

In that case, do you agree that P(X) + P(Y) = 1?

Also, do you agree that P(X|E) + P(Y|E) = 1 ?