Source: EconLog
by Kevin Corcoran
“In 2007, Eliezer Yudkowsky wrote an interesting article advocating for what he called ‘defying the data.’ The idea was fairly simple – say you have some theory explaining how the world works. A new study is published with data that can’t be accounted for with your theoretical framework. How should you respond? One response is to abandon your theory in favor of the new data. Another response is to keep your theory intact and, as Yudkowsky says, ‘attack the experiment – accuse the researchers of dishonesty, or flawed design, or conflict of interest.’ But there is a third possibility – that of simply defying the data.” (07/01/25)
https://www.econlib.org/defying-the-data-standard-of-living-edition/