Deck 2: D: Reading and Evaluating Scientific Research

Question 1

Explain why anecdotal evidence,appeals to authority,and appeals to common sense are all considered poor forms of evidence and provide an example (not covered in the textbook)of each.

Answer 1

Answer (examples will vary):
Anecdotal evidence is the experience of one person generalized into a theory,such as when a person listens to hypnosis CDs and loses 58 pounds in three months.This is anecdotal evidence and not real evidence because no hypothesis was tested in developing the theory.The weight loss could have been caused by any number of things other than the CDs.Appeal to authority is evidence from an "expert" that is assumed to be valid and reliable simply because an expert says it is true.An expert may claim to have found a great weight-loss program but experts can be wrong and experts can have hidden agendas.It is important to see what the expert may have to gain by claiming an untested theory is true.Appeal to common sense is evidence that sounds like it must be true but hasn't necessarily been tested.A great example is that people long thought that the earth was stationary and the centre of the universe because this theory made sense based on their (limited)knowledge of the cosmos.The best theory is always based on the results of hypotheses tested using the scientific method.