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60% of an insurer's policyholders are male and 40% are female. The chance of a female having a claim is twice the chance of a male having a claim. Given a randomly selected policyholder has a claim, what's the probability that the policyholder is a male?
A
35%
B
65%
C
57%
D
43%
Explanation:
This is a conditional probability problem that can be solved using Bayes' theorem.
Given:
Let:
Using Bayes' theorem:
Substitute values:
Simplify:
Explanation: The probability that a claimant is male is approximately 43%, which corresponds to option D. This result makes intuitive sense because although males make up 60% of the policyholders, females are twice as likely to file claims, which reduces the conditional probability of a claimant being male.