A Null Hypothesis is a statement of no effect or no relationship between variables. It’s the default assumption in statistical hypothesis testing. Essentially, it claims that any observed differences are due to chance or random variation.
- No effect or relationship: The null hypothesis states that there is no significant difference between groups or no correlation between variables.
- Starting point: It’s the starting point for statistical analysis.
- Challenged by alternative hypothesis: The goal of hypothesis testing is to gather evidence to reject the null hypothesis in favor of an alternative hypothesis.
Example:
- If you want to test if a new drug is effective in lowering blood pressure, the null hypothesis would be: “There is no difference in blood pressure between people who take the new drug and those who take a placebo.”
The Null Hypothesis is a baseline assumption that researchers aim to disprove through data analysis.