This sort of thing pisses me off.
Oct. 9th, 2006 06:04 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
conuly
Two children is not a statistically relevant sample.
Two children is anecdotal evidence taken to terrifying extremes.
So the boy happens to be less dainty than the girl. Even if we could say there aren't any differences in how they're treated (yeah, right), it's two children. What can you extrapolate from two?
Nothing, that's what.
But this person is saying that "based on what I saw today"....
What she saw today is two children, raised in two different families, behaving like two different children. Wow. And there's no guarantee that this is all she saw - maybe she missed parts where they didn't act in stereotyped ways, because this wasn't as noticeable to her.
(And this, ladies and gentlemen, is why anecdotal evidence is evil and wrong and should be abolished.)
Two children is anecdotal evidence taken to terrifying extremes.
So the boy happens to be less dainty than the girl. Even if we could say there aren't any differences in how they're treated (yeah, right), it's two children. What can you extrapolate from two?
Nothing, that's what.
But this person is saying that "based on what I saw today"....
What she saw today is two children, raised in two different families, behaving like two different children. Wow. And there's no guarantee that this is all she saw - maybe she missed parts where they didn't act in stereotyped ways, because this wasn't as noticeable to her.
(And this, ladies and gentlemen, is why anecdotal evidence is evil and wrong and should be abolished.)
