Normatively loaded terminology corrupts datasets and downstream causal analysis.

Evidence

Terminology is often very normatively loaded. To call an action “terrorist” is a normative evaluation. Terrorism is notoriously a problematic concept, in part because of these normative loadings. Because terrorism is such a problematic concept it makes data sets problematic, and then downstream causal analyses problematic. — Gary Goertz, Social Science Concepts and Measurement, 376

Categorization

• SEED: An essay tracing how the label ‘terrorist’ propagates measurement error into published quantitative findings on political violence.
• XREF: Connects to the reader’s Islamophobia corpus, where the word ‘terrorist’ is contested and its coding drives statistics.