The plural of anecdote is data, after all

I've used the quotation "The plural of anecdote is not data" in various talks over the years, never knowing the original source. I searched the usual places (though clearly not hard enough!), but never figured out whom it should be attributed to. So I was pleased to learn that John Myles White had discovered the source: Raymond Wolfinger (presumably the political scientist from Berkeley). This attribution comes in this 2004 email from Fred Shapiro, editor of the Yale Dictionary of Quotations:

I [Shapiro] e-mailed Wolfinger last year and got the following response from him:

"I said 'The plural of anecdote is data' some time in the 1969-70 academic year while teaching a graduate seminar at Stanford.  The occasion was a student's dismissal of a simple factual statement -- by another student or me -- as a mere anecdote. The quotation was my rejoinder. Since then I have missed few opportunities to quote myself. The only appearance in print that I can remember is Nelson Polsby's accurate quotation and attribution in an article in PS: Political Science and Politics in 1993; I believe it was in the first issue of the year."

So I've been using the quotation wrong all this time! I think I'm going to stick with "The plural of anecdote is not data", though: the word "anecdote" to me suggests information surrendered, not collected, and it's the implication of reporting bias that makes the quote so apposite for statisticians.

Linguist List: Re: "Plural of anecdote is data" (Ray Wolfinger)

Comments

[ray ban sonnenbrillen]

Thank u so much. I really appreciate it.

[statsy stat]

wow

[Nick]

I like using your version of the quotation myself. Thinking about it, I suppose both are valid depending on the context of the discussion.

[Paul Becke]

I think Mr Wolfinger was right. Anecdote, after all has far more wide-ranging applicability as a trustworthy source than data.

I only know that the USA exists on the basis of anecdotal evidence, while political activists make no secret of how they use, obviously skewed, telephone 'polls', in order to form opinions, rather than provide meaningful data. Assumptions, after all, are a key factor in both the sensible collection and the honest use of data.

[Megan]

Wasn't Roger Brinner was the author of "The plural of anecdote is not data"?