Ananecdote[1][2] is "a story with a point",[3] such as to communicate an abstract idea about a person, place, or thing through the concrete details of a short narrative or to characterize by delineating a specificquirk or trait.[4]
Anecdotes may be real or fictional;[5] the anecdotal digression is a common feature of literary works[6] and even oral anecdotes typically involve subtle exaggeration and dramatic shape designed to entertain the listener.[7] An anecdote is always presented as the recounting of a real incident involving actual people and usually in an identifiable place. In the words ofJürgen Hein, they exhibit "a special realism" and "a claimed historical dimension".[8] Robbins notes the usefulness of the scientific community in not defining anecdotes. She observes that anecdote transmission follows patterns similar to epidemic models and that anecdotes serve as compression algorithms for complex social and economic information.[9]
The wordanecdote (inGreek: ἀνέκδοτον "unpublished", literally "not given out") comes fromProcopius of Caesarea, the biographer of EmperorJustinian I (r. 527–565). Procopius producedc. 550 CE a work entitledἈνέκδοτα (Anekdota, variously translated asUnpublished Memoirs or asSecret History), which consists primarily of a collection of short incidents from the private life of the Byzantine court. Gradually, the term "anecdote" came to be applied[10] to any short tale used to emphasize or illustrate whatever point an author wished to make. In the context of Greek, Estonian, Lithuanian, Bulgarian andRussian humor, an anecdote refers to any short humorous story without the need of factual or biographical origins.
Anecdotal evidence is an informal account ofevidence in the form of an anecdote. The term is often used in contrast toscientific evidence, as evidence that cannot be investigated using thescientific method. The problem with arguing based on anecdotal evidence is that anecdotal evidence is not necessarily typical; only statistical evidence can determine how typical something is. Misuse of anecdotal evidence is aninformal fallacy.[citation needed]
When used inadvertising or promotion of a product, service, or idea, anecdotal evidence is often called atestimonial. The term is also sometimes used in a legal context to describe certain kinds of testimony.Psychologists have found that people are more likely to remember notable examples than the typical example.[11]
