Why Isn't Everyone a Bayesian?

Authors
Citation
B. Efron,, Why Isn't Everyone a Bayesian?, American statistician , 40(1), 1986, pp. 1-5
Journal title
ISSN journal
00031305
Volume
40
Issue
1
Year of publication
1986
Pages
1 - 5
Database
ACNP
SICI code
Abstract
Originally a talk delivered at a conference on Bayesian statistics, this article attempts to answer the following question: why is most scientific data analysis carried out in a non-Bayesian framework?The argument consists mainly of some practical examples of data analysis, in which the Bayesian approach is difficult but Fisherian/frequentist solutions are relatively easy.There is a brief discussion of objectivity in statistical analyses and of the difficulties of achieving objectivity within a Bayesian framework.The article ends with a list of practical advantages of Fisherian/frequentist methods, which so far seem to have outweighed the philosophical superiority of Bayesianism.