Credence or degree of belief is a statistical term that expresses how much a person believes that a proposition is true. As an example, a reasonable person will believe with 50% credence that a fair coin will land on heads the next time it is flipped. If the prize for correctly predicting the coin flip is 100,thenareasonablerisk−neutralpersonwillwager49 on heads, but they will not wager 51onheads.Credenceisameasureofbeliefstrength,expressedasapercentage.Credencevaluesrangefrom0Ifabagcontains4redmarblesand1bluemarble,andapersonwithdrawsonemarbleatrandom,thentheyshouldbelievewith80Credencevaluescanbebasedentirelyonsubjectivefeelings.Forexample,ifAliceisfairlycertainthatshesawBobatthegrocerystoreonMonday,thenshemightsay,"Ibelievewith90100, then Alice will wager 89thathermemoryisaccurate,butshewouldnotbewillingtowager91 or more. Given that Alice is 90% credent, this level of belief can be expressed as gambling odds in the following ways:
90% credence
1 / 9 fractional odds (1 to 9)
1.11 decimal odds
−900 moneyline odds
The return on a 100wageris11.11 (plus the $100 initial wager).
See the article odds for conversion equations.