Link to Article: The Plural of Anecdote is Not Data
Quote from Article:
Dr. John Byrne, M.D. wrote:
Data is useful. Data represents information from either all relevant cases or a representative sample of all the relative cases. Inferences made from properly acquired data lead to scientific discoveries. Data is scientific. Unfortunately, data tends to be dry. It tends to be boring. We generally do not connect emotionally to 'data'.
Anecdotes are stories. People have been telling stories for as long as there has been speech. The ability to tell stories likely led to tremendous survival advantages for those early human groups that achieved it. Our minds seem adapted to dealing with relatively small groups of 150 people or less. Language and storytelling played an important role in maintaining the groups' well-being. A tribe whose members could relate their individual experiences about the location of food or predators would be expected to survive in greater numbers. It is speculated that stories in the form of gossip may have given rise to important survival advantages.
We empathize with a good storyteller because our ancestors passed on this trait as a survival skill. Hence, it literally is natural for us to become emotionally moved by a good story.
Do you agree?
03 Apr 2013, 11:50 am
