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• How to Write a Strong Hypothesis | Steps & Examples

How to Write a Strong Hypothesis | Steps & Examples

Published on May 6, 2022 by Shona McCombes . Revised on November 20, 2023.

A hypothesis is a statement that can be tested by scientific research. If you want to test a relationship between two or more variables, you need to write hypotheses before you start your experiment or data collection .

Example: Hypothesis

Daily apple consumption leads to fewer doctor’s visits.

Table of contents

What is a hypothesis, developing a hypothesis (with example), hypothesis examples, other interesting articles, frequently asked questions about writing hypotheses.

A hypothesis states your predictions about what your research will find. It is a tentative answer to your research question that has not yet been tested. For some research projects, you might have to write several hypotheses that address different aspects of your research question.

A hypothesis is not just a guess – it should be based on existing theories and knowledge. It also has to be testable, which means you can support or refute it through scientific research methods (such as experiments, observations and statistical analysis of data).

Variables in hypotheses

Hypotheses propose a relationship between two or more types of variables .

• An independent variable is something the researcher changes or controls.
• A dependent variable is something the researcher observes and measures.

If there are any control variables , extraneous variables , or confounding variables , be sure to jot those down as you go to minimize the chances that research bias  will affect your results.

In this example, the independent variable is exposure to the sun – the assumed cause . The dependent variable is the level of happiness – the assumed effect .

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Step 1. ask a question.

Writing a hypothesis begins with a research question that you want to answer. The question should be focused, specific, and researchable within the constraints of your project.

Step 2. Do some preliminary research

Your initial answer to the question should be based on what is already known about the topic. Look for theories and previous studies to help you form educated assumptions about what your research will find.

At this stage, you might construct a conceptual framework to ensure that you’re embarking on a relevant topic . This can also help you identify which variables you will study and what you think the relationships are between them. Sometimes, you’ll have to operationalize more complex constructs.

Step 3. Formulate your hypothesis

Now you should have some idea of what you expect to find. Write your initial answer to the question in a clear, concise sentence.

4. Refine your hypothesis

You need to make sure your hypothesis is specific and testable. There are various ways of phrasing a hypothesis, but all the terms you use should have clear definitions, and the hypothesis should contain:

• The relevant variables
• The specific group being studied
• The predicted outcome of the experiment or analysis

5. Phrase your hypothesis in three ways

To identify the variables, you can write a simple prediction in  if…then form. The first part of the sentence states the independent variable and the second part states the dependent variable.

In academic research, hypotheses are more commonly phrased in terms of correlations or effects, where you directly state the predicted relationship between variables.

If you are comparing two groups, the hypothesis can state what difference you expect to find between them.

6. Write a null hypothesis

If your research involves statistical hypothesis testing , you will also have to write a null hypothesis . The null hypothesis is the default position that there is no association between the variables. The null hypothesis is written as H 0 , while the alternative hypothesis is H 1 or H a .

• H 0 : The number of lectures attended by first-year students has no effect on their final exam scores.
• H 1 : The number of lectures attended by first-year students has a positive effect on their final exam scores.

If you want to know more about the research process , methodology , research bias , or statistics , make sure to check out some of our other articles with explanations and examples.

• Sampling methods
• Simple random sampling
• Stratified sampling
• Cluster sampling
• Likert scales
• Reproducibility

 Statistics

• Null hypothesis
• Statistical power
• Probability distribution
• Effect size
• Poisson distribution

Research bias

• Optimism bias
• Cognitive bias
• Implicit bias
• Hawthorne effect
• Anchoring bias
• Explicit bias

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A hypothesis is not just a guess — it should be based on existing theories and knowledge. It also has to be testable, which means you can support or refute it through scientific research methods (such as experiments, observations and statistical analysis of data).

Null and alternative hypotheses are used in statistical hypothesis testing . The null hypothesis of a test always predicts no effect or no relationship between variables, while the alternative hypothesis states your research prediction of an effect or relationship.

Hypothesis testing is a formal procedure for investigating our ideas about the world using statistics. It is used by scientists to test specific predictions, called hypotheses , by calculating how likely it is that a pattern or relationship between variables could have arisen by chance.

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Research Hypothesis Generator Online

• ️👍 Hypothesis Maker: the Benefits
• ️🔎 How to Use the Tool?
• ️🕵️ What Is a Research Hypothesis?
• ️⚗️ Scientific Method
• ️🔗 References

👍 Hypothesis Maker: the Benefits

Here are the key benefits of this null and alternative hypothesis generator.

🔎 Hypothesis Generator: How to Use It?

Whenever you conduct research, whether a 5-paragraph essay or a more complex assignment, you need to create a hypothesis for this study.

Clueless about how to create a good hypothesis?

No need to waste time and energy on this small portion of your writing process! You can always use our hypothesis creator to get a researchable assumption in no time.

To get a ready-made hypothesis idea, you need to:

• State the object of your study
• Specify what the object does
• Lay out the outcome of that activity
• Indicate the comparison group

Once all data is inserted into the fields, you can press the “Generate now” button and get the result from our hypothesis generator for research paper or any other academic task.

🕵️ What Is a Research Hypothesis?

A hypothesis is your assumption based on existing academic knowledge and observations of the surrounding natural world.

It also involves a healthy portion of intuition because you should arrive at an interesting, commonsense question about the phenomena or processes you observe.

The traditional formula for hypothesis generation is an “if…then” statement, reflecting its falsifiability and testability.

What do these terms mean?

• Testability means you can formulate a scientific guess and test it with data and analysis.
• Falsifiability is a related feature, allowing you to refute the hypothesis with data and show that your guess has no tangible support in real-world data.

For example, you might want to hypothesize the following:

If children are given enough free play time, their intelligence scores rise quicker.

You can test this assumption by observing and measuring two groups – children involved in much free play and those who don’t get free play time. Once the study period ends, you can measure the intelligence scores in both groups to see the difference, thus proving or disproving your hypothesis, which will be testing your hypothesis. If you find tangible differences between the two groups, your hypothesis will be proven, and if there is no difference, the hypothesis will prove false.

Null and Alternative Hypothesis

As a rule, hypotheses are presented in pairs in academic studies, as your scientific guess may be refuted or proved. Thus, you should formulate two hypotheses – a null and alternative variant of the same guess – to see which one is proved with your experiment.

The alternative hypothesis is formulated in an affirmative form, assuming a specific relationship between variables. In other words, you hypothesize that the predetermined outcome will be observed if one condition is met.

Watching films before sleep reduces the quality of sleep.

The null hypothesis is formulated in a negative form, suggesting that there is no association between the variables of your interest. For example:

Watching films before sleep doesn’t affect the quality of sleep.

⚗️ Creating a Hypothesis: the Key Steps

The development and testing of multiple hypotheses are the basis of the scientific method .

Without such inquiries, academic knowledge would never progress, and humanity would remain with a limited understanding of the natural world.

How can you contribute to the existing academic base with well-developed and rigorously planned scientific studies ? Here is an introduction to the empirical method of scientific inquiry.

Step #1: Observe the World Around You

Look around you to see what’s taking place in your academic area. If you’re a biology researcher, look into the untapped biological processes or intriguing facts that nobody has managed to explain before you.

What’s surprising or unusual in your observations? How can you approach this area of interest?

That’s the starting point of an academic journey to new knowledge.

Step #2: Ask Questions

Now that you've found a subject of interest, it's time to generate scientific research questions .

A question can be called scientific if it is well-defined, focuses on measurable dimensions, and is largely testable.

Some hints for a scientific question are:

• What effect does X produce on Y?
• What happens if the intensity of X’s impact reduces or rises?
• What is the primary cause of X?
• How is X related to Y in this group of people?
• How effective is X in the field of C?

As you can see, X is the independent variable , and Y is the dependent variable.

This principle of hypothesis formulation is vital for cases when you want to illustrate or measure the strength of one variable's effect on the other.

Step #3: Generate a Research Hypothesis

After asking the scientific question, you can hypothesize what your answer to it can be.

You don't have any data yet to answer the question confidently, but you can assume what effect you will observe during an empirical investigation.

For example, suppose your background research shows that protein consumption boosts muscle growth.

In that case, you can hypothesize that a sample group consuming much protein after physical training will exhibit better muscle growth dynamics compared to those who don’t eat protein. This way, you’re making a scientific guess based on your prior knowledge of the subject and your intuition.

Step #4: Hold an Experiment

With a hypothesis at hand, you can proceed to the empirical study for its testing. As a rule, you should have a clearly formulated methodology for proving or disproving your hypothesis before you create it. Otherwise, how can you know that it is testable? An effective hypothesis usually contains all data about the research context and the population of interest.

For example:

Marijuana consumption among U. S. college students reduces their motivation and academic achievement.

• The study sample here is college students.
• The dependent variable is motivation and academic achievement, which you can measure with any validated scale (e.g., Intrinsic Motivation Inventory).
• The inclusion criterion for the study's experimental group is marijuana use.
• The control group might be a group of marijuana non-users from the same population.
• A viable research methodology is to ask both groups to fill out the survey and compare the results.

Step #5: Analyze Your Findings

Once the study is over and you have the collected dataset, it's time to analyze the findings.

The methodology should also delineate the criteria for proving or disproving the hypothesis.

Using the previous section's example, your hypothesis is proven if the experimental group reveals lower motivational scores and has a lower GPA . If both groups' motivation and GPA scores aren't statistically different, your hypothesis is false.

Step #6: Formulate Your Conclusion

Using your study's hypothesis and outcomes, you can now generate a conclusion . If the alternative hypothesis is proven, you can conclude that marijuana use hinders students' achievement and motivation. If the null hypothesis is validated, you should report no identified relationship between low academic achievement and weed use.

Thank you for reading this article! Note that if you need to conduct a business analysis, you can try our free tools: SWOT , VRIO , SOAR , PESTEL , and Porter’s Five Forces .

❓ Research Hypothesis Generator FAQ

❓ what is a research hypothesis.

A hypothesis is a guess or assumption you make by looking at the available data from the natural world. You assume a specific relationship between variables or phenomena and formulate that supposition for further testing with experimentation and analysis.

❓ How to write a hypothesis?

To compose an effective hypothesis, you need to look at your research question and formulate a couple of ways to answer it. The available scientific data can guide you to assume your study's outcome. Thus, the hypothesis is a guess of how your research question will be answered by the end of your research.

❓ What is the difference between prediction and hypothesis?

A prediction is your forecast about the outcome of some activities or experimentation. It is a guess of what will happen if you perform some actions with a specific object or person. A hypothesis is a more in-depth inquiry into the way things are related. It is more about explaining specific mechanisms and relationships.

❓ What makes a good hypothesis?

A strong hypothesis should indicate the dependent and independent variables, specifying the relationship you assume between them. You can also strengthen your hypothesis by indicating a specific population group, an intervention period, and the context in which you'll hold the study.

Updated: Jun 5th, 2024

🔗 References

• What is and How to Write a Good Hypothesis in Research?
• Research questions, hypotheses and objectives - PMC - NCBI
• Developing the research hypothesis - PubMed
• Alternative Hypothesis - SAGE Research Methods
• Alternative Hypothesis Guide: Definition, Types and Examples