Is this a fair representation of frequentists versus bayesians? I feel like every time the topic comes up, 'Bayesian statistics' is an applause light for me, and I'm not sure why I'm supposed to be applauding.
Unfortunately, if there is disagreement merely about how much prior uncertainty is appropriate, then this is sufficient to render the outcome controversial.
Controversial prior info, but posterior dominated by likelihood: Choose weak enough priors to convince skeptics. Bayes works well.
Controversial prior info, posterior not dominated by likelihood: If you choose very weak priors skeptics won't be convinced. If you choose strong priors skeptics won't be convinced. Bayes doesn't work well. Frequentism will also not work well unless you sneak in strong assumptions.
http://xkcd.com/1132/
Is this a fair representation of frequentists versus bayesians? I feel like every time the topic comes up, 'Bayesian statistics' is an applause light for me, and I'm not sure why I'm supposed to be applauding.