The Cherry Pick

February 9th, 2005

Posted by: Roger Pielke, Jr.

Last year I wrote “ … the cherry pick — the careful selection of information to buttress a particular predetermined perspective while ignoring other information that does not. In other words, take the best and leave the rest.”

And in an examination of the misuse of science by the Bush I and Clinton Administrations I wrote, “When making an argument people often selectively choose or present information that makes their case look as strong as possible. Not only is this an effective tactic in argumentation; because there are (a) a diversity of perspectives on facts, and (b) many valid ways to understand “facts,” cherry picking is inescapable.”

Along these lines the team at RealClimate has a great post that describes some of the pitfalls of cherry picking: “… for some critics, any argument will do – regardless of its coherence with the argument they had before, or the one they will pick next.”

Dan Sarewitz argues that “…when cause-and-effect relations are not simple or well-established, all uses of facts are selective. Since there is no way to “add up” all the facts relevant to a complex problem like global change to yield a “complete” picture of “the problem,” choices must be made. Particular sets of facts may stand out as particularly compelling, coherent, and useful in the context of one set of values and interests, yet in another appear irrelevant to the point of triviality.”

But what the folks at RealClimate remind us is that if you are cherry picking, be careful, because if you are not careful, the resulting bowl of fruit might also contain some apples and oranges.

One Response to “The Cherry Pick”

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  1. Crispin Richards Says:

    Mr. Dan Sarewitz is wrong. The art of picking apart a result with a complex set of drivers is called statisical analysis. It may not be the most interesting branch of mathematics, but it is an accepted mathematical principle. Now if he had argued that the data is insufficient, that would have been a different matter.