Dubiousexamples
Dubiousexamples is a term used in critical thinking and rhetoric to describe illustrative instances offered to support a claim that are questionable in reliability or relevance. The term is not widely standardized and may appear in informal discussions or educational materials. Dubious examples can arise from selective presentation, overgeneralization, or failure to distinguish correlation from causation. They often rely on single anecdotes, extreme cases, or unverified data that do not adequately represent the issue.
Common forms include anecdotal evidence presented as universal proof, cherry-picked instances that support a hypothesis while
Evaluation involves checking the source and method behind the example, assessing representativeness, and seeking counterexamples. Analysts
See also: anecdotal evidence, cherry-picking, hasty generalization, statistical literacy.