Hypothesising

Hypothesising is the process of forming a hypothesis, a tentative explanation or educated guess that can be tested. It is used across disciplines, from science to social sciences to everyday reasoning. In British English, the verb is hypothesising; in American English, hypothesizing.

In the scientific method, hypothesising begins with a question and leads to a testable prediction. A good hypothesis is falsifiable and specific enough to be tested through observation or experiment. The outcome may support or refute the hypothesis, prompting revision or rejection.

Hypotheses include the null hypothesis, which posits no effect or relationship, and the alternative hypothesis, which posits an effect or relationship. They can be directional (predicting the direction of an effect) or non-directional. Hypotheses should be grounded in prior evidence and theory.

A hypothesis is generally more tentative than a theory. When evidence accumulates, a hypothesis may contribute to broader explanatory frameworks. Distinguish between correlation and causation: a hypothesis can describe associations, but establishing causality requires careful design and control of confounding factors.

Limitations include bias, overgeneralization, and the possibility of unfalsifiable conjecture. Methods such as preregistration and replication aim to improve reliability and reduce bias in hypothesising and subsequent testing.

See also: hypothesis, hypothesis testing, falsifiability, scientific method, theory.