Question

What Is a False Positive and False Negative and How Are They Significant?

Answer 1

False positives are those cases that wrongly get classified as True but are False. 

False negatives are those cases that wrongly get classified as False but are True.

In the term ‘False Positive,’ the word ‘Positive’ refers to the ‘Yes’ row of the predicted value in the confusion matrix. The complete term indicates that the system has predicted it as a positive, but the actual value is negative. 

                                                                   
                                                                      Actual

                                                          yes                     no

                                           yes         12                        3     (False positive)

                                            no           1                         9 

                                                   (False negative)

So, looking at the confusion matrix, we get:

False-positive = 3

True positive = 12

Similarly, in the term ‘False Negative,’ the word ‘Negative’ refers to the ‘No’ row of the predicted value in the confusion matrix. And the complete term indicates that the system has predicted it as negative, but the actual value is positive.

So, looking at the confusion matrix, we get:

False Negative = 1

True Negative = 9