Probit

Statistics

Probit model

Social psychology

Variable (mathematics)

Psychology

Mathematics

Econometrics

Mathematical analysis

Logit

Strengths and weaknesses

Ordered probit

Logistic regression

Multinomial probit

Multinomial logistic regression

Annual Review of Sociology

Methods textbooks in sociology and other social sciences routinely recommend the use of the logit or probit model when an outcome variable is binary, an ordered logit or ordered probit when it is ordinal, and a multinomial logit when it has more than two categories. But these methodological guidelines take little or no account of a body of work that, over the past 30 years, has pointed to problematic aspects of these nonlinear probability models and, particularly, to difficulties in interpreting their parameters. In this review, we draw on that literature to explain the problems, show how they manifest themselves in research, discuss the strengths and weaknesses of alternatives that have been suggested, and point to lines of further analysis.

Interpreting and Understanding Logits, Probits, and Other Nonlinear Probability Models