Equation 6 · Part 10 · Ecological Rationality: When Biases Are Adaptations
Denominator: P(D mid lnot H)
What this part means
The complete quantity below the fraction bar; it must be nonzero for this division.
Its job in the formula
P(D mid lnot H) occurs below the fraction bar. The quantity above the bar is divided by this expression; zero is excluded as a denominator.
Full expression→Denominator: P(D mid lnot H)→Article meaning
The passage around this formula
This is a rule about optimal thresholds, not merely an intuition, and it has a compact formal statement. A decision-maker observes ambiguous evidence D bearing on whether a state H holds — a predator is present, a partner is unfaithful, an approach signals romantic interest — against the alternative that it does not. Where is the fitness cost of a false alarm and is the fitness cost of a miss, the threshold that minimizes total expected fitness cost is to infer H whenever: . When the two error costs are equal, the cost ratio on the right collapses to one, and the rule reduces to the ordinary Bayesian classifier that a norm blind to consequences would…
Learn the underlying idea
A fraction a/b means a divided by b. The top number is the numerator; the bottom number is the denominator, and it cannot be zero.
Open the illustrated fractions: division written vertically guide →
Sources cited in the surrounding passage
- [10] Error Management Theory: A New Perspective on Biases in Cross-Sex Mind Reading ↗
- [12] The Evolution of Error: Error Management, Cognitive Constraints, and Adaptive Decision-Making Biases ↗
These citations provide research context; check each source for the exact claim it supports.