No. What your talking about there is reliability of evidence.NotoriousREV wrote: ↑Sat Apr 27, 2019 10:55 am
I agree. Your data would be having an actual non-black cat or a fully documented, corroborated sighting of said non-black cat.
However, you wouldn’t dismiss the theory because someone says “oh hey, I once saw a non-black cat”, you’d wait for the evidence.
If the anecdotal report is from a questionable source, then sure, you can object to your black cat theory being blown out of the water on the basis that the person providing the evidence is a liar.
Having a photo increases your confidence that the person isn't lying and reduces your ability to dismiss their claim.
However, if we work on the assumption that nobody is lying about their experiences, then my point stands - a single counter example is enough to disprove a theory but a weight of evidence is required to support it.