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Woozle effect, also known as evidence by citation, or a woozle, occurs when frequent citation of previous publications that lack evidence misleads individuals, groups and the public into thinking or believing there is evidence, and nonfacts become urban myths and factoids. According to Richard J. Gelles the term "woozle effect" was coined by Beverly Houghton in 1979. Other researchers have attributed the term to Gelles (1980) and Gelles and Murray A. Straus (1988). Gelles and Straus argue that the woozle effect describes a pattern of bias seen within social sciences and which is identified as leading to multiple errors in individual and public perception, academia, policy making and government. A woozle is also a claim made about research which is not supported by original findings.

Origin and usage

A Woozle is an imaginary character in the A.A. Milne book, Winnie-the-Pooh, published 1926. In chapter three, "In Which Pooh and Piglet Go Hunting and Nearly Catch a Woozle", Winnie-the-Pooh and Piglet start following tracks left in snow believing they are the tracks of a Woozle. The tracks keep multiplying. Christopher Robin then explains that they have been following their own tracks around a tree.

In 1979, Houghton illustrated the Woozle effect, showing how work by Gelles 1974, published in the book "The violent home", had been transferred from applying to a small sample to a universal sample by Strauss who had written the foreword to the same book. Both of these were then cited by Langley & Levy in their 1977 book, "Wife beating: the silent crisis".

In the 1998 book "Intimate Violence", Gelles and Straus use the Winnie-the-Pooh woozle to illustrate how poor practice in research and self-referential research causes older research to be taken as fresh evidence causing error and bias.

A woozle effect, or a woozle, occurs when frequent citation of previous publications that lack evidence mislead individuals, groups and the public into thinking or believing there is evidence, and non-facts become urban myths and factoids. The creation of woozles is often linked to the changing of language from qualified ("it may", "it might", "it could") to absolute form ("it is") firming up language and introducing ideas and views not held by an original author or supported by evidence.

The woozle effect is seen as an example of confirmation bias and has been linked to belief perseverance and groupthink. Due to the nature of social sciences, where empirical evidence can be based more upon subjects' experiential report than absolute measure, there can be a tendency for researchers to align evidence with expectation. Social sciences are also seen as more likely to align with contemporary views and ideals of social justice, leading to bias towards those ideals and use of evidence to prove them.

In popular culture

Stephen Colbert is famous for his Misplaced Pages pranks that reference how popular culture often believes anything that is placed in the Misplaced Pages whether it is factually right or wrong. Colbert's term for this is Wikiality

Colbert's Misplaced Pages Elephant prank involved the creation of a woozle:

He also told his viewers to go onto Misplaced Pages, in the article elephants, and to edit it so that it would say: "Elephant population in Africa has tripled over the past six months."

See also

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• Argument from authority
• Argumentum ad populum
• Fallacy
• Idola theatri - Idols of the Theatre
• Spiral Dynamics
• Viral phenomenon
• White hat bias
• Consensus_reality and Wikiality

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References

1. Strauss, Murray A. (14 July 2007). "Processes Explaining the Concealment and Distortion of Evidence on Gender Symmetry in Partner Violence". European Journal on Criminal Policy and Research. 74 (13): 227–232. doi:10.1007/s10610-007-9060-5..
2. ^ Richard J. Gelles; Murray Arnold Straus (July 1988). Intimate violence. Simon and Schuster. p. 39. ISBN 978-0-671-61752-3.
3. Jean Malone; Andrea Tyree; K. Daniel O'Leary (August 1989). "Generalization and Containment: Different Effects of Past Aggression for Wives and Husbands". Journal of Marriage and Family. 51 (3): 687–697. Gelles (1980) suggested that the 'woozle' effect, first named by Houghton (1979), is operating in the cycle-of-violence area to magnify findings and to ignore peculiarities of sampling issues.
4. Nilsen, Linda (2012). Father-daughter relationships: contemporary research and issues. New York: Routledge Academic. p. 4. ISBN 978-1-84872-933-9.
5. Dutton, Donald D.; Corvo, Kenneth (2006). "Transforming a flawed policy: A call to revive psychology and science in domestic violence research and practice". Aggression and Violent Behavior. 11 (5): 466.
6. Ehrensaft, Miriam K. (2009). "Intimate partner violence: Persistence of myths and implications for intervention". Children and Youth Services Review. 30 (3): 279–286.
7. Richard J. Gelles; Murray Arnold Straus (July 1988). "2". Intimate violence. Simon and Schuster. p. 28. ISBN 978-0-671-61752-3.
8. Milne, A.A. (1926). "3". Winnie The Pooh (1 ed.). London: Methuen & Co Ltd. In Which Pooh and Piglet Go Hunting and Nearly Catch a Woozle
9. Houghton, B. (November 1979). "Review of research on women abuse". annual meeting of the American Society of Criminology, Philadelphia.
10. Richard J. Gelles (November 1974). The violent home: a study of physical aggression between husbands and wives. Sage Publications. ISBN 978-0-8039-0381-4.
11. Forward By Straus, Murray A. (November 1974). The violent home: a study of physical aggression between husbands and wives. Sage Publications. pp. 13–17. ISBN 978-0-8039-0381-4. Original Author Richard J. Gelles {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameters: |trans_title=, |laydate=, |authormask=, and |laysummary= (help)
12. Richard J. Gelles (Nov 1980). "Violence in the Family: A Review of Research in the Seventies". Journal of Marriage and Family. 42 (4): 873–885. The 'Woozle Effect' begins when one investigator reports a finding, such as Gelles's (1974) report...In the 'Woozle Effect,' a second investigator will then cite the first study's data, but without the qualifications (such as done by Straus, 1974a). Others will then cite both reports and the qualified data gain the status of generalizable 'truth.'
13. Roger Langley; Richard C. Levy (1977). Wife beating: the silent crisis. Dutton. ISBN 978-0-87690-231-8.
14. ^ Donald G. Dutton (30 May 2006). Rethinking Domestic Violence. UBC Press. p. 28. ISBN 978-0-7748-1304-4.

• Psychology terminology
• Cognitive biases
• Sociological terminology
• Scientific method
• Men's studies
• Gender studies
• Men's rights