Affirming the antecedent

Affirming the antecedent is a logical argument in which the truth of a conditional statement is established by affirming the antecedent (the statement before the “if” clause).

How to calculate

1. Identify the conditional statement (e.g. “If P then Q”).

2. Identify the antecedent (the statement before the “if” clause, in this case “P”).

3. Assume the truth of the antecedent (in this case, assume “P” is true).

4. Show that if the antecedent is true, then the consequent (the statement after the “if” clause, in this case “Q”) must also be true.

5. Conclude that if the antecedent is true, then the consequent is also true.

Examples

1. In a hypothesis test, affirming the antecedent means rejecting the null hypothesis (H0) and accepting the alternative hypothesis (Ha).

2. In a Bayesian analysis, affirming the antecedent means updating the prior probability in favor of the hypothesis being tested.

3. In a regression analysis, affirming the antecedent means accepting the linear or curved relationship between the two variables being studied.

Related Topics

• LINEAR

• ANTECEDENT

• PROBABILITY

• REGRESSION

• CONSEQUENT

• ALTERNATIVE