MA121: Introduction to Statistics

A false negative error is where a test result indicates that a condition failed, while it actually was successful. A common example is a guilty prisoner freed from jail. The condition: "Is the prisoner guilty? " actually had a positive result (yes, he is guilty). But the test failed to realize this and wrongly decided the prisoner was not guilty.

A false negative error is a type II error occurring in test steps where a single condition is checked for and the result can either be positive or negative.