Bayes’s theorem

Bayes’s theorem, in probability theory, a means for revising predictions in light of relevant evidence, also known as conditional probability or inverse probability. The theorem was discovered among the papers of the English Presbyterian minister and mathematician Thomas Bayes and published posthumously in 1763. Related to the theorem is Bayesian inference, or Bayesianism, based on the assignment of some a priori distribution of a parameter under investigation. In 1854 the English logician George Boole criticized the subjective character of such assignments, and Bayesianism declined in favour of “confidence intervals” and “hypothesis tests”—now basic research methods.

If, at a particular stage in an inquiry, a scientist assigns a probability distribution to the hypothesis H, Pr(H)—call this the prior probability of H—and assigns probabilities to the evidential reports E conditionally on the truth of H, Pr_H(E), and conditionally on the falsehood of H, Pr_−H(E), Bayes’s theorem gives a value for the probability of the hypothesis H conditionally on the evidence E by the formula Pr_E(H) = Pr(H)Pr_H(E)/[Pr(H)Pr_H(E) + Pr(−H)Pr_−H(E)].

As a simple application of Bayes’s theorem, consider the results of a screening test for infection with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV; see AIDS). Suppose an intravenous drug user undergoes testing where experience has indicated a 25 percent chance that the person has HIV; thus, the prior probability Pr(H) is 0.25, where H is the hypothesis that the person has HIV. A quick test for HIV can be conducted, but it is not infallible: almost all individuals who have been infected long enough to produce an immune system response can be detected, but very recent infections may go undetected. In addition, “false positive” test results (that is, false indications of infection) occur in 0.4 percent of people who are not infected; therefore, the probability Pr_−H(E) is 0.004, where E is a positive result on the test. In this case, a positive test result does not prove that the person is infected. Nevertheless, infection seems more likely for those who test positive, and Bayes’s theorem provides a formula for evaluating the probability.

(Read Steven Pinker’s Britannica entry on rationality.)

Suppose that there are 10,000 intravenous drug users in the population, all of whom are tested for HIV and of which 2,500, or 10,000 multiplied by the prior probability of 0.25, are infected with HIV. If the probability of receiving a positive test result when one actually has HIV, Pr_H(E), is 0.95, then 2,375 of the 2,500 people infected with HIV, or 0.95 times 2,500, will receive a positive test result. The other 5 percent are known as “false negatives.” Since the probability of receiving a positive test result when one is not infected, Pr_−H(E), is 0.004, of the remaining 7,500 people who are not infected, 30 people, or 7,500 times 0.004, will test positive (“false positives”). Putting this into Bayes’s theorem, the probability that a person testing positive is actually infected, Pr_E(H), is Pr_E(H) = (0.25 × 0.95)/[(0.25 × 0.95) + (0.75 × 0.004)] = 0.988.

Applications of Bayes’s theorem used to be limited mostly to such straightforward problems, even though the original version was more complex. There are two key difficulties in extending these sorts of calculations, however. First, the starting probabilities are rarely so easily quantified. They are often highly subjective. To return to the HIV screening described above, a patient might appear to be an intravenous drug user but might be unwilling to admit it. Subjective judgment would then enter into the probability that the person indeed fell into this high-risk category. Hence, the initial probability of HIV infection would in turn depend on subjective judgment. Second, the evidence is not often so simple as a positive or negative test result. If the evidence takes the form of a numerical score, then the sum used in the denominator of the above calculation will have to be replaced by an integral. More complex evidence can easily lead to multiple integrals that, until recently, could not be readily evaluated.

Nevertheless, advanced computing power, along with improved integration algorithms, has overcome most calculation obstacles. In addition, theoreticians have developed rules for delineating starting probabilities that correspond roughly to the beliefs of a “sensible person” with no background knowledge. These can often be used to reduce undesirable subjectivity. These advances have led to a recent surge of applications of Bayes’s theorem, more than two centuries since it was first put forth. It is now applied to such diverse areas as the productivity assessment for a fish population and the study of racial discrimination.