Something I’ve been sitting with: sometimes calls & demands for evidence are in bad faith. And as a researcher, I’ve got to be acutely aware of this. 1/

There is strong evidence for lots of social reforms that are dismissed & ignored. Universal health care. Living wages. Paid sick. It goes on. 2/

What gets considered “evidence” reinforces the problem. People saying what they need is evidence. People saying that something is traumatizing is evidence. What else you need? 3/

This is not to say data & rigorous methods aren’t important. They are! But recognizing bad faith challenges is important, too. 4/

An essential reminder from @WhitneyEpi & @zinzinator (2019): “systemic change tends to be driven not by precise quantitative estimates but by narratives about causation, cultural values, and attribution of moral responsibility.” 5/5