Evidence

"What facts/data support the claim and reason?"

Even after the evidence “for their beliefs has been totally refuted, people fail to make appropriate revisions in those beliefs,” the researchers noted. In this case, the failure was “particularly impressive,” since two data points would never have been enough information to generalize from.

The Stanford studies became famous. Coming from a group of academics in the nineteen-seventies, the contention that people can’t think straight was shocking. It isn’t any longer. Thousands of subsequent experiments have confirmed (and elaborated on) this finding. As everyone who’s followed the research—or even occasionally picked up a copy of Psychology Today—knows, any graduate student with a clipboard can demonstrate that reasonable-seeming people are often totally irrational.

"Why Facts Don't Change Our Minds"

In a nutshell

Evidence is whatever facts you need to convince the audience to accept your reason.
Different audiences require different evidence!
Ultimately, evidence is just another claim, therefore subject to dispute.

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Types of evidence

Personal experience (from yourself and others—often narrative!)
Field observations (personal and reported)
Surveys and questionnaires
Data and charts
Publications (desktop research and literature review)
Authority opinion & expert testimony
Hypothetical scenarios
Principle-based reasoning (for more abstract arguments)

Going deeper

What is a "fact"? A "fact" is just a claim that nobody disputes.
Therefore, ideally, "evidence" consists of factual claims that the audience readily accepts:
- "This report showed the economic growth of Skunkton after banning cars from the inner city."
However, in reality, we use all types of claims as evidence, not only factual claims:
- "Skunkton had a similar issue to Beaverton..." (Resemblance claim)
- "Skunkton's policies led to a decline in traffic... (Causal claim)
- "Car bans have been shown to provide the greatest returns..." (Valuational claim)
And all evidence can be disputed, including basic factual claims:
- Evidence: "This report shows the economic growth of Skunkton after banning cars from the inner city."
- Rebuttal: "No, the report shows the economic decline of Skunkton!"
The more that bedrock factual claims are in dispute, the less effective the argument becomes, because the parties have no shared reality.

In Frankenstories

Players are usually asked to provide evidence to go with reasons in R2 & R3.
Even in a Balderdash-type game, you can encourage players to invent different types of evidence and play with ways to make evidence sound more convincing.

Example: Last recorded words of a Roman soldier at the Battle of Urumia

Example: Bad News for Ancient Rome

Teaching Argument Writing with Frankenstories