Anecdotal evidence

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Anecdotal evidence is evidence based only on personal observation, collected in a casual or non-systematic manner.

"Anecdotal" can refer to:

1. Relaying personal experiences^[1] or sense data,^[2] also called testimony, or a testimonial.^[3]

2. Relaying the words or experiences of another^[4] named person,^[5] sometimes called hearsay.^[6]

3. Relaying an account from an fictional source, or story^[7] with no attribution, also called an apocryphal^[8] saying, an old wives' tale, a myth, or folklore.

Because the term connotes three very different kinds of evidence, discussion of the term can result in accidental or intentional equivocation , where people are talking about different meanings of the term without realizing it. Since an anecdote may be real or fictional,^[9] it is often difficult to talk about this form of evidence as a category without explaining exactly what type of anecdotal evidence is being referenced.

Anecdotal Evidence usually is not subject to rules of legal, historical, academic, or intellectual rigor, meaning that there are little or no safeguards against fabrication or inaccuracy. This does not mean that all anecdotal evidence is false, it just means that the methodology of scholarly method or the scientific method, or legal requirements of testimony have not been required of the evidence.

When used in advertising or promotion of a product, service, or idea, anecdotal reports are often called a testimonial, which are highly regulated^[10] in some jurisdictions.