TY - JOUR T1 - Can everyone stop using the ‘F’ word? JF - British Journal of General Practice JO - Br J Gen Pract SP - 142 LP - 142 DO - 10.3399/bjgp18X695201 VL - 68 IS - 668 AU - Richard Hooper Y1 - 2018/03/01 UR - http://bjgp.org/content/68/668/142.abstract N2 - [Enter two statisticians, deep in conversation] X:‘Sticking to frequentist principles of data analysis can only get you so far. You frequentists–’ Y:‘Hold on — can you please stop using the “F” word?’ X:‘The “F” word?’ Y:‘“Frequentist.”’ X:‘Aren’t you a frequentist?’ Y:‘No.’ X:‘So you’re a Bayesian then.’ Y:‘Certainly not!’ X:‘But I thought that statisticians who weren’t Bayesians were called frequentists.’ Y:‘That’s like suggesting that people who aren’t Jewish are called Zoroastrians. Frequentism means something very particular. The frequentist principle is that what works well in the long run is also a good rule in any unique instance. The frequentist approach to hypothesis testing, for example, is to follow a procedure that leads to few errors in the long run. Jerzy Neyman and Egon Pearson, who invented modern hypothesis testing, didn’t even think it was sensible to try to evaluate uncertainty, such as the uncertainty over competing hypotheses in any unique instance of … ER -