Letters to the Editor
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And thanks, James Elliot
"While it is incumbent, of course, to note that the plural of anecdote is not data, it would seem to be a worthy line of inquiry for future research."
Such a sublime statement.
I'm always stunned, though I suppose I shouldn't be anymore, how hard this is to understand for most people. So much of the scientifically illerate population has no sense of evidence beyond anecdote. And a surprising number of scientists discount and disparage any anecdotal evidence that doens't fit their own hypotheses, rather than acknowledge that while anecdotes are weak and incomplete evidence, they should point us toward further experimentation and questioning.