Fallacy
Anecdotal Evidence
Also known as: Isolated Case
- Category
- Fallacy
- Main group
- Informal Fallacy
- Subgroup
- Logical Induction Error
- Difficulty
- easy (1/3)
- Argumentation order
- 1. Argument
Description
Establishing a general rule based on individual cases without considering statistical frequency.
The opposite of empirical evidence.
Example
"Smoking can't be that unhealthy. Helmut Schmidt, for example, was a chain smoker and lived to a very old age."
- Limitations
Anecdotes can make important contributions to illustrating contradictions, exceptions, or personal impact.
The accusation of anecdotal evidence can be used to dismiss counterexamples out of hand.
- Researched by
David Hume
- See also
Cherry Picking
Sampling Bias