Title: Anecdotal evidence - RationalWiki
Headings: Anecdotal evidence
Anecdotal evidence
Contents
Form
Legitimate use
Problems
Regression to the mean
Adulteration
Improbability
Selection bias
Lack of follow up/incompleteness
Advantages of anecdotal evidence
The power of anecdotes
See also
External links
Notes
References

Content: stories) to either support or refute a claim. The use of anecdotal evidence to draw a conclusion is like using the NBA all-star teams to estimate the average height of Americans . Whereas anecdotal evidence is sometimes the starting point of a proper scientific investigation, it is all too often the ending point and every point of a pseudoscientific investigation. In the world of pseudoscience, an anecdote is the equivalent of a peer-reviewed, double-blind, repeatable scientific experiment with consistent results. Anecdotal evidence is often used in politics, journalism, blogs and many other contexts to make or imply generalisations based on very limited and cherry-picked examples, rather than reliable statistical studies. A classic instance was Ronald Reagan 's story of a " welfare queen " who was abusing the system, who Reagan attempted to portray as indicative of the average welfare recipient. It turned out she didn't even exist when some reporters finally decided to look for her. Anecdotal evidence is especially vulnerable to confabulation or outright deceit . Remember: the plural of "anecdote" is not "data".