Fact v. Opinion

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John Lord (Flikr Image Commons)

When people make claims they use "facts" to try to convince listeners they are right.

Since facts must be provable, and many things that are claimed to be true can't be proven, there is some mislabeling going on.

Some of the "facts' people report are actually opinion--thus, we need to be carful to separate facts from opinion.

Envirollness (Flikr Image Commons)

We need a way to distinguish between what is provable and what is someone's opinion.  Fortunately, we can do by sorting claims into one of two categories:

Quantitative

Qualitative

Ognian Mladenov (Flikr Image Commons)

Quantitative: These are facts that can be tested and proven true.  If they are proven to be untrue, then they are not a fact.  The testing process is called falsification.  Examples of quantitative facts:

State hiring rates for workers with disabilities aged 30 and under have decreased 69% in the last seven years.  The evidence showing this to be true can be seen by clicking here.  It is further discussed in another blog, here (TBA).

In the last 10 years the state worker hiring rate for White people was higher than for Disabled, Asian, Black, and Hispanic.  See the evidence by clicking here. 

Harrison (Flikr Image Commons)

"Most of the claims filed with my office are not discrimination... Nationally about 3-5% of these types of claims are proven."  This statement was made on March 19, 2014 (around 1:45 PM) by the Equal Employment Officer (EEO) of a large state organization.  He made this claim in a closed meeting attended by managers. 

Peg Hunter (Flikr Image Commons)

Turns out the EEO managers claim is false!

The rate of claims being proven, on a national level, is about ten times higher!

Click here to see the facts.

Therefore, the EEO manager's claim is not a quantitative fact; rather, it is a false claim.  

wstera2 (Flikr Image Commons)

Qualitative: These are not facts, they are opinion.  Even if a person is a well-respected expert, if what they are saying can't be subjected to falsification (testing to see if it is true or false), then what they are saying is opinion.   

Examples of qualitative opinion:

 

Dave Gay (Flikr Image Commons)

Our success rate is looking good.

We saw improvement last year.

The problem is resolving.

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Be cautious about calling claims a fact.

Get in the habit of only believing things that can be proven.

Don't assume EEO officers will treat you fairly or are committed to justice.

Please cite this blog as: Nelson, Eric L. (2015).  Fact v. Opinion.  Trends in State Work, http://trendsinstatework.blogspot.com/2015/04/fact-v-opinion.html