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Anecdotal evidence is a term used in medical, scientific and legal discourse to refer to evidence, typically in the form of isolated anecdotes, describing an event that occurred under uncontrolled conditions.

Anecdotal evidence may be true (for instance, the existence of the giant squid was originally anecdotal). However, it is viewed with caution, as personal testimony is subject to cognitive bias; and even if it is true, there is no way to know if a single data point represents the trend for the data or is an exception (an outlier).

It commonly arises in the form of the fallacy of faulty generalization: for instance, "My grandmother lived to 95, smoked constantly, and didn't die of lung cancer" may be taken as evidence that smoking does not cause lung cancer.

While not conclusive in itself, multiply-corroborated anecdotal evidence may provide the basis for more rigorous investigation. For example, anecdotal testimony commonly forms part of the evidence for discrimination lawsuits, and may be sufficient to initiate a class action.

References

• Overall Assessment of Approach and Analysis of the Law Commission Report Ministry of Economic Development, New Zealand
• Legal Terms & Definitions Sprenger & Lang, Attorneys
• Judge certifies Wal-Mart class action lawsuit MSBN, June 22, 2004
• Second Generation Disparity Study Final Report City of Phoenix study

External Links

• "Anecdotal Evidence" from a course in Critical thinking at Santa Rosa Junior College.
• "Anecdotal Evidence".
• "Anecdotal (testimonial) evidence", from the Skeptic's Dictionary.

See also

• Faulty generalization
• Hasty generalization
• Logical fallacy
• Scientific method

• Evidence