Title: What is the difference between empirical evidence and anecdotal evidence? - Quora
Headings: What is the difference between empirical evidence and anecdotal evidence?
What is the difference between empirical evidence and anecdotal evidence?
Geremy Lawrence
What is the difference between empirical evidence and anecdotal evidence?
Anders Rehnberg
Rob Smith
Elise Beraru

Content: While it is generally reliable it is not always correct and this is why we use other means such as corroboration from other sources or "cross examination" as a tool to bring out the hidden assumptions and biases that can effect the witness' recounting of the facts as he/she perceived them and then communicated them to some third party (us or another). It is really a two step process when obtaining evidence from a witness. First, the witness perceives the evidence or experience with their senses and then the witness must recount it in some fashion so that we can receive it and analyze it. So, both the perceiving of the information and the recounting of it must be analyzed when trying to assess the reliability of eyewitness “empirical” evidence. If you have ever seen the movie "My Cousin Vinny" you will see an excellent (and funny) example of how eyewitness testimony works in court and the cross examination used to expose the flaws in a witnesses' testimony due to bias, unsupported conclusions, inability to perceive what they are actually recounting and a number of other common issues that arise in court. I have actually done things like that during my courtroom trials (and many other things) to get to the truth of a matter. It is the art of all good trial lawyers to expose fallacies in arguments and so called "observations" made by witnesses that really turn out to be incorrect conclusions and not observations, at all. In fact, lawyers can be extremely annoying to discuss things with because they usually have razor sharp "BS meters" and often embarrass people in mundane conversations without really trying to do so when people say stupid unsupported things (sadly very common) simply by asking a few pointed questions. Just ask any person married to a trial lawyer and they will verify this trait. We simply cannot help it.