At a reunion of Reed College graduates who majored in psychology, I gave a talk about self-experimentation. One question was what I thought of Evidence-Based Medicine. I said the idea you could improve on anecdotes had merit, but that proponents of Evidence-Based Medicine have been evidence snobs (which derives from Alex Tabarrok’s credit snobs). I meant they’ve dismissed useful evidence because it didn’t reach some level of purity. Because health is important, I said, ignoring useful information, such as when coming up with nutritional recommendations, is really unfortunate.
Afterwards, four people mentioned “evidence snobs” to me. (Making it the most-mentioned thing I said.) They all liked it. Thanks, Alex.