The Evidence We Value

What makes you believe something? Follow a diet? Vote for a politician? Buy a product? These are questions we must all ask ourselves.

Of course, to the modern human, the obvious answer is ‘I consider which one has the best reasoning and the most supporting evidence.

But this answer doesn’t solve our issue; I think that the problem lies not in this statement, but in what we consider ‘reasoning’ and ‘evidence’.

I don’t believe that we are well equipped to avoid fallacious persuasion, nor do I think that we are aware of our biases. This unawareness, if you may, can influence what kind of ‘evidence’ and ‘reasoning’ we value.

I was watching TV the other day, and I saw this program on the Ketogenic diet, a very popular diet that many are following nowadays. What was quite intriguing to me wasn’t this particular diet itself, but how this TV program went about explaining it. It almost entirely relied on interviews.

Now, this might seem unharmful, but I reason that this is, at the very least, an indication of two things.

For one, this just shows me how lazy the production team was. They didn’t even attempt to research the scientific literature on the diet. They simply relied on the interviewees to have enough expertise on or experience with the diet.

In essence, they shifted the burden of truth from their shoulders to the interviewees. They won’t get scrutinized if the interviewees say something utterly wrong, will they?

For another, it shows us the exact kind of ‘evidence’ and ‘reasoning’ we, as a nation, prefer – or at least what the TV channel thinks we prefer. Namely, personal experience and expert opinion.

For whatever reason, the producers decided to rely on these two forms of ‘evidence’ to discuss the diet.

However, I argue that these two forms of evidence are not the best. Many people who have used the diet have lost weight while still many have not. The personal experiences of two people can be different for the same event.

Moreover, personal experiences tend to overlook other factors. Did they remain the same weight because the diet doesn’t work? Or were they just not committed enough? Did they lose weight because the diet works? Or was it because they were also exercising? (Another usually overlooked factor are placebos).

Personal experience isn’t a reflection of reality, but a reflection of someone’s perception of it. In the religious context, many swear they saw this deity while many swear they saw the other.

If personal experiences were to be always true, we would simply have a contradictory account of reality.

Keep in mind that I’m not saying that personal experience is necessarily wrong and false, I’m saying that since it isn’t necessarily true, we should look for evidence beyond it.

And when it comes to expert opinion, sometimes called an appeal to authority, we face some of the same problems.

Simply put, just because someone is an expert doesn’t mean that they are not wrong. It’s not rare to hear someone claim something along the lines of ‘what do you know, they are a doctor/engineer/economist’. Nor is it uncommon to see people buy certain products just because an expert recommended them.

We can’t always trust experts simply for their expertise though. This is because there is a multitude of factors that might affect the expert’s truthfulness: personal intentions, biases, conflict of interest, and the mere fact that the expert might not be up to date with the latest research in their field.

Once again, I’m saying that we should look beyond an expert’s opinion and look at other forms of reasoning and evidence behind a particular claim.

The two forms of evidence that I think our people rely on the most are considered to be the lowest forms of evidence. But I didn’t just want to say what the experts say and call it a day, I wanted to explain and reason why they are not my favorite forms of evidence.

To summarize, I think that the TV program was a good case study on the forms of evidence we value as a society.

I think engaging critical thinking lessons should be included in the curricula of every school and institution. Also, I think it’s important for our media outlets to highlight other forms of evidence and also encourage the general population to think more critically.

A message from AUIS Voice editorial staff to our readers:

The Voice is committed to publishing a diversity of opinions. The views expressed in this Editorial are those of the author, and do not necessarily represent the views of the AUIS Voice editorial staff or AUIS in general.

- Lazo Bakhtiar