alternative hypothesis

(NL: alternatieve hypothese)

In the context of a statistical hypothesis test, the alternative hypothesis (often written as \(H_1\)) is an assumption about a population parameter that we want to test.

The alternative hypothesis usually represents the assumption that there is a significant difference between the population parameter and a given value, or that there is a relationship between two variables.

The procedure of the test is based on the assumption that the null hypothesis is true. If we then encounter a contradiction, the null hypothesis is rejected and the alternative hypothesis is accepted.