In communication studies, science communication, psycholinguistics and choice theory, anecdotal value refers to the primarily social and political value of an anecdote or anecdotal evidence in promoting understanding of a social, cultural, or economic phenomenon. While anecdotal evidence is typically unscientific, in the last several decades the evaluation of anecdotes has received sustained academic scrutiny from economists and scholars such as Felix Salmon,[1] S. G. Checkland (on David Ricardo), Steven Novella, R. Charleton, Hollis Robbins, Kwamena Kwansah-Aidoo, and others. These academics seek to quantify the value of the use of anecdotes, e.g. in promoting public awareness of a disease. More recently, economists studying choice models have begun assessing anecdotal value in the context of framing; Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky suggest that choice models may be contingent on stories or anecdotes that frame or influence choice.[2] As an example, consider the quote, widely misattributed to Joseph Stalin and later recognized to be from Kurt Tucholsky: The death of one man is a tragedy, the death of millions is a statistic.[3][4]

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ Reuters Viral as Anecdotal
  2. ↑ Freymuth, Angela K.; Ronan, George F. (1 September 2004). "Modeling Patient Decision-Making: The Role of Base-Rate and Anecdotal Information". Journal of Clinical Psychology in Medical Settings. 11 (3): 211–216. doi:10.1023/B:JOCS.0000037615.23350.f3. hdl:2027.42/44856.
  3. ↑ Solovyova, Julia (October 28, 1997) Mustering Most Memorable Quips Archived 2008-05-04 at the Wayback Machine, The Moscow Times states: "Russian historians have no record of the lines, 'Death of one man is a tragedy. Death of a million is a statistic,' commonly attributed by English-language dictionaries to Josef Stalin." Discussion of the book by Konstantin Dushenko, Dictionary of Modern Quotations (Словарь современных цитат: 4300 ходячих цитат и выражений ХХ века, их источники, авторы, датировка). See also Joseph Stalin in Wikiquote.
  4. ↑ Quote Investigator (May 10, 2010). "A Single Death is a Tragedy; a Million Deaths is a Statistic". Retrieved November 9, 2017.

References

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