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Part VI: The Part of Tens
To avoid being reeled in by someone’s data fishing, don’t just go with the first

result that you hear, especially if it makes big news and/or seems a little suspi-
cious. Contact the researchers and ask for more information about their data,
or wait to see whether other researchers can verify and replicate their results.
Expose the Anecdote
Ah, the anecdote — one of the strongest influences on public opinion and
behavior ever created. And one of the least valid. An anecdote is a story or
result based on a single person’s experience or situation. For example:
✓ The waitress who won the lottery — twice.
✓ The cat that learned how to ride a bicycle.
✓ The woman who lost a hundred pounds in two days on the new miracle
potato diet.
✓ The celebrity who claims to have used an over-the-counter hair color for
which she is a spokesperson (yeah, right).
Anecdotes make great news; the more sensational the better. But sensational
stories are outliers from the norm of life. They don’t happen to most people.
You may think you’re out of reach of the influence of anecdotes. But what
about those times when you let one person’s experience influence you? Your
neighbor loves his Internet service provider, so you try it, too. Your friend
had a bad experience with a certain brand of car, so you don’t bother to test-
drive it. Your dad knows somebody who died in a car crash because she was
trapped in the car by her seat belt, so he decides never to wear his.
While some decisions are okay to make based on anecdotes, some of the
more important decisions you make should be based on real statistics and
real data that come from well-designed studies and careful research.
An anecdote is really a data set with a sample size of only one. You have no
information to compare it to, no statistics to analyze, no possible explanations
or information to go on — just a single story. Don’t let anecdotes have much
influence over you. Instead, rely on scientific studies and statistical informa-
tion based on large random samples of individuals who represent their target
populations (not just a single situation). When someone tries to persuade you
by telling you an anecdote just say, “Show me the data!”

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