Anti-vax evidence frequently rests on anecdotal samples of one

Evidence

Within five minutes of arriving at Buddy Ball, I met a father who pressed a glossy brochure into my hand about the supposed link between vaccines and autism. He laid out his evidence, which amounted to a control group of two. His older child, he explained, was born abroad and was not vaccinated. That child is neurotypical. His youngest was born in the United States, was vaccinated, and is autistic. “So,” he declared, “it’s obvious it’s the vaccines!” — Naomi Klein, Doppelganger, 640

Categorization

• CANDY: The ‘control group of two’ is a perfect, tweetable illustration of how conspiracy reasoning collapses under outlier anecdotes.