In a two-by-two framework, which cell includes individuals who do not have the disease but test positive?

• A. True Positives
• B. False Positives
• C. False Negatives
• D. True Negatives

Answer: (B)

In a diagnostic two-by-two framework, individuals are categorized by their actual disease status and their test result. The group that does not have the disease but tests positive is a false positive. This happens when the test indicates disease even though the person is disease-free. It’s the misclassification of non-diseased individuals as positive. This differs from true positives (diseased and test positive), false negatives (diseased but test negative), and true negatives (not diseased and test negative). The idea underscores why specificity matters: a higher specificity means fewer false positives, since 1 minus specificity reflects the rate of these incorrect positive results.