False Positive vs False Negative. The importance of False Positives

Date: October 29, 2019
To:
From: Your Name
Subject: The importance of False Positives
______________________________________________________________________________
I am writing to inform you of the importance of false positives in our quality of life as consumers.
As we know, false results – in the form of false positives and false negatives – exist all over our society. While they might seem as errors or aberrations, understanding how they affect our daily lives is crucial for our progress.
In the succeeding sections, I would start by differentiating false positives and false negatives. Subsequently, I would like to illustrate why consumers like myself think that false negatives are more important for the improvement of the quality of life as compared to other.
False Negatives
A false negative result occurs when a person, machine, or tool perceive something to be inexistent despite the fact that it is there in the first place. In most cases, false negatives exist in the medical field, where the results of clinical examinations could yield a negative result thereby making it harder to make a diagnosis of a person’s illnesses.
For example, one of the most common methods that yield false negative results are ‘rapid flu tests’ that can be purchased over the counter. Reports have said that several people rely heavily on the results of these kinds of tests that it exposes them, not only to incorrect diagnosis, but also to fatal consequences CITATION Bar17 \l 1033 (Barden, 2017).
Another example of a technology that is prone to false negatives are smart driving cars. Smart driving cars are usually reliant on sensors and radars that detects the presence of objects. However, several incidents that have caused injury to persons and property happened as the sensors of these smart driving cars have failed to detect the presence of a person or an stationary object CITATION Lar18 \l 1033 (Laris, 2018).
False Positives
In contrast to the previous class of false results, false positives happen when a person or a machine perceives something as being existent despite ...