A researcher hypothesizes that people living in the Midwest are more opposed to same-sex marriage than people living on either the West or East Coast (who do not differ from each other) . In conducting a one-way ANOVA with this data, how should the alternative hypothesis (H₁) be stated?

A) H₁: μMidwest < μWest = μEast
B) H₁: all μs are equal
C) H₁: μMidwest ≠ μWest ≠ μEast
D) H₁: not all μs are equal

Alternative Hypothesis

The hypothesis that proposes a significant difference or relationship between variables, opposite to the null hypothesis.

One-way ANOVA

A statistical test used to compare the means of three or more independent groups to see if there is a significant difference between them.

Midwest

A geographical region of the United States generally including states in the central, northern part of the country.