Anecdotal evidence
Anecdotal evidence is evidence based only on personal observation, collected in a casual or non-systematic manner.
When used in advertising or promotion of a product, service, or idea, anecdotal reports are often called a testimonial, which are highly regulated[1] in some jurisdictions.
When compared to other types of evidence, anecdotal evidence is generally regarded as limited in value due to a number of potential weaknesses, but may be considered within the scope of
Scientific context
In science, definitions of anecdotal evidence include:
- "casual observations or indications rather than rigorous or scientific analysis"[7]
- "information passed along by word-of-mouth but not documented scientifically"[8]
- "evidence that comes from an individual experience. This may be the experience of a person with an illness or the experience of a practitioner based on one or more patients outside a formal research study."[9]
- "the report of an experience by one or more persons that is not objectively documented or an experience or outcome that occurred outside of a controlled environment"[10]
Anecdotal evidence can have varying degrees of formality. For instance, in medicine, published anecdotal evidence by a trained observer (a doctor) is called a case report, and is subjected to formal peer review.[11] Although such evidence is not seen as conclusive, researchers may sometimes regard it as an invitation to more rigorous scientific study of the phenomenon in question.[12] For instance, one study found that 35 of 47 anecdotal reports of drug side-effects were later sustained as "clearly correct."[13]
Anecdotal evidence is considered the least certain type of scientific information.[14] Researchers may use anecdotal evidence for suggesting new hypotheses, but never as validating evidence.[15][16]
If an anecdote illustrates a desired conclusion rather than a logical conclusion, it is considered a
In any case where some factor affects the probability of an outcome, rather than uniquely determining it, selected individual cases to prove nothing; e.g. "my grandfather smoked two packs a day until he died at 90" and "my sister never smoked but died of lung cancer". Anecdotes often refer to the exception, rather than the rule: "Anecdotes are useless precisely because they may point to idiosyncratic responses."[18]
In medicine, anecdotal evidence is also subject to
See also
- Anecdotal value
- Argument from ignorance – Informal fallacy
- Confirmation bias – Bias confirming existing attitudes
- Correlation does not imply causation – Refutation of a logical fallacy
- Empirical evidence – Knowledge acquired by means of the senses
- Eyewitness testimony – Account a witness gives in the courtroom of what they observed
- Fallacy – Argument that uses faulty reasoning
- Faulty generalization – Conclusion made on the basis of one or few instances of a phenomenon
- Hasty generalization– Conclusion made on the basis of one or few instances of a phenomenon
- List of fallacies – List of faulty argument types
- Lived experience – Phenomenological concept
- Post hoc ergo propter hoc – Fallacy of assumption of causality based on sequence of events
- Presumption of guilt – Presumption that a person is guilty of a crime
- Scientific method – Interplay between observation, experiment and theory in science
References
- ^ "Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising" (PDF). FTC.gov.
- ISBN 9780495601975.
- ISBN 9780470522783.
- S2CID 145050644.
- ^ Schwarcz, Joe; Barrett, Stephen. "Some Notes on the Nature of Science". Archived from the original on 20 September 2012. Retrieved 16 June 2022.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link) - ^ "Fallacies | Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy". www.iep.utm.edu. Retrieved 2020-04-07.
- ^ "anecdotal". YourDictionary.com. Retrieved 17 June 2019.
- ^ "Nechako White Sturgeon Recovery Initiative - Glossary - NWSRI". www.nechakowhitesturgeon.org. Retrieved 2020-04-07.
- ^ "Anecdotal evidence - Smart Health Choices - NCBI Bookshelf". www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov. Retrieved 2020-04-07.
- ^ "No Love for Anecdotal Evidence". NeuroLogica Blog. 2007-03-08. Retrieved 2020-04-07.
- ISBN 0-7506-4592-X.
- S2CID 867759.
- PMID 0006799125.
- ISBN 0-12-588560-1.
- ISBN 9781462517510.
Testimonial and anecdotal evidence can be quite useful in the early stages of scientific investigation. Nevertheless, such evidence is almost always much more helpful in the context of discovery (i.e., hypothesis generation) than in the context of justification (i.e., hypothesis testing [...]).
- S2CID 252384889.
- ^ Thompson B. Fallacies. Archived April 20, 2006, at the Wayback Machine
- S2CID 1484234.
- ^ "Evaluating Treatment Products". MedicineNet.