anecdotal

An anecdote is a short, often personal story about a specific incident or experience. The adjective anecdotal describes information or evidence that is based on such informal accounts rather than on systematic investigation or data collection.

In research and evidence-based practice, anecdotal evidence consists of stories, testimonials, or isolated cases. While these can highlight possible phenomena and help generate hypotheses, they are vulnerable to bias and do not establish causation or generalizability. Common issues include selection bias (stories chosen because they are unusual), recall bias, and the tendency for memorable outcomes to be overrepresented.

In journalism and public discourse, the term anecdotal is often used to critique claims that rely on individual reports rather than rigorous verification or statistical analysis. Anecdotal reports can capture real experiences and illuminate aspects of a topic, but they can also mislead if presented as representative or comprehensive.

Etymology-wise, anecdote originates from Greek anekdotos, meaning unpublished or not given out, and the adjective evolved to describe information framed as such stories. In scientific and policy contexts, anecdotes are typically considered a starting point for inquiry rather than definitive evidence; they may inspire research questions that are then tested with systematic methods and larger, representative samples.