In the course of a conversation, you observe that three of your friends like horror movies. Horror movies happen to be your favorite type of movie as well. You also know that all of these friends were born in the same week that you were, even in the same year. An astrology-loving friend hypothesizes that people born in that week like horror movies more than other genres of movies. You decide to use the scientific method to test this hypothesis. What should you do next? a. Come up with a theory to explain birth week b. Perform experiments to test your hypothesis c. Propose several alternative hypotheses d. Refine your hypothesis.

Hypothesis testing refers to a systematic method for evaluating the use of information for our theories about the situation. These testing techniques are used by investigators to test particular presumptions as claimed by the astrology loving friend in the question. The benefit of the scientific testing of the hypothesis is that it is systematic and comprehensive, and each step is documented, and the theory is continuously updated until the researcher has arrived at a firm sufficient conclusion.