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Exactly. A person's anecdata is worthless. "Lived experience" is anecdotal. A female researcher doesn't add anything to a study on ovarian cancer or detract an
by keanzu 7y ago
Exactly. A person's anecdata is worthless. "Lived experience" is anecdotal.
A female researcher doesn't add anything to a study on ovarian cancer or detract anything from a study of testicular cancer because of her gender. Her anecdata is worth zero in both case, her actual data is what counts.
If she tries an argument from authority (credentials or gender) her credibility is shot. Either the data supports her conclusions or it does not.
- BoorishBears 7y agoThis is exactly why you need diversity. You don't see how a woman could help a study on ovarian cancer? Help point out procedure that's demeaning or inconvenient, point out "common sense" correlations? Even just have someone with an additional dimension of empathy for the subjects of the study. It doesn't mean she detracts from the study about testicular cancer, it means she adds to the one about ovarian. People don't seem to understand that the world doesn't operate on facts alone, and that it's not some failing of logic to take "feelings" into account in a process trying to come to a logical outcome. Not doing that is how companies end up making tone deaf decisions that were supported by the facts in their narrow view, but not the actual reality of the world