The use of "no evidence" statements in public health

Cummings, L, 2015. The use of "no evidence" statements in public health. Informal Logic, 35 (1), pp. 32-64. ISSN 0824-2577

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Abstract

Public health communication makes extensive use of a linguistic formulation that will be called the "no evidence" statement. This is a written or spoken statement of the form "There is no evidence that P" where P stands for a proposition that typically describes a human health risk. Danger lurks in these expressions for the hearer or reader who is not logically perspicacious, as arguments that use them are only warranted under certain conditions. The extent to which members of the public are able to determine what those conditions are will be considered by examining data obtained from 879 subjects. The role of "no evidence" statements as cognitive heuristics in public health reasoning is considered.

Item Type:	Journal article
Publication Title:	Informal Logic
Creators:	Cummings, L.
Publisher:	Centre for Research in Reasoning, Argumentation and Rhetoric, University of Windsor
Place of Publication:	Windsor, Ontario
Date:	2015
Volume:	35
Number:	1
ISSN:	0824-2577
Identifiers:	Number Type 10.22329/il.v35i1.4119 DOI
Rights:	© 2015 Louise Cummings, Informal Logic
Divisions:	Schools > School of Arts and Humanities
Record created by:	EPrints Services
Date Added:	09 Oct 2015 10:24
Last Modified:	23 Feb 2024 15:59
URI:	https://irep.ntu.ac.uk/id/eprint/12407

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