We are All Bayesian, Everyone is Not a Bayesian

Details

Serval ID
serval:BIB_F969415FD4DE
Type
Article: article from journal or magazin.
Collection
Publications
Institution
Title
We are All Bayesian, Everyone is Not a Bayesian
Journal
Topoi
Author(s)
Andreoletti Mattia, Oldofredi Andrea
Publication state
Published
Issued date
2018
Peer-reviewed
Oui
Language
english
Abstract
Medical research makes intensive use of statistics in order to support its claims. In this paper we make explicit an epistemological tension between the conduct of clinical trials and their interpretation: statistical evidence is sometimes discarded on the basis of an (often) underlined Bayesian reasoning. We suggest that acknowledging the potentiality of Bayesian statistics might contribute to clarify and improve comprehension of medical research. Nevertheless, despite Bayesianism may provide a better account for scientific inference with respect to the standard frequentist approach, Bayesian statistics is rarely adopted in clinical research. The main reason lies in the supposed subjective elements characterizing this perspective. Hence, we discuss this objection presenting the so-called Reference analysis, a formal method which has been developed in the context of objective Bayesian statistics in order to define priors which have a minimal or null impact on posterior probabilities. Furthermore, according to this method only available data are relevant sources of information, so that it resists the most common criticisms against Bayesianism.
Keywords
Evidence · Clinical trials · Scientific inference · Frequentism · Bayesian statistics · Reference analysis
Create date
13/10/2018 13:02
Last modification date
21/08/2019 6:14
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