Fact or Opinion

[drewh]

1. The deepest part of the ocean is 35,813 feet deep.
a. I rated this one factual (F) because in the process of probing for evidence I was able to consistently quantify and verify this to be within +/- 16 ft. on several reputable and reliable websites. When I tried searching by asking Google what is the deepest location on the earth instead I found the same information leading towards the Marina Trench in the Pacific Ocean. I found several answers within a reasonable margin of error (10.9km, and 35,797ft) to support the claim.


2. Smoking is bad for your health. (F)
a. Although this one is stated more like an opinion, I rated this one factual (F) because in the process of probing for evidence I was able to consistently find data that is largely supported by tangible facts from many different sources of documented ailments as a result of smoking AND bad health. The pattern and connections overwhelmingly supports the correlations between smoking and bad health. The way I read the statement, It didn’t infer that if you didn’t smoke your likely to be healthy. The underlying cause for bad health in this case is smoking and there is a verifiable correlation between the two.


3. 85 percent of all cases of lung cancer in the US are caused by smoking. (F)
a. In the process of probing for consequence I was able to find reliable evidence that consistently led me to believe that a significant number of lung cancers in the US are indeed related to smoking. The correlation between the two can be verified and quantified 85% of the time.


4. One out of every hundred American citizens is color blind. (O)
a. At first glance, my metacognition strongly suggests that this very much sound like a random opinion than a fact. Seeking clarification how did they validate the citizenship of their sample size for US citizenship. So now my quest begins to find reasons why it is or is not. While I was able to find the “science-fact” website that states that “One out of every hundred American citizens is color blind.” I could not find any compelling data on their website or anywhere else to validate the statement. Other websites in my research gives quantifiable varying levels of color blindness but did not provide any evidence of the “One out of every hundred American citizens is color blind.” So until I’m able to find sound verifiable data to support the statement I’m comfortable calling this one an opinion.


5. Two out of ten American citizens are boring. (O)
a. This statement lacks clarity because my metacognition is telling me that each person may have different biases for what constitutes “boring”. This is not likely to be reasonably verifiable. (assumptions and biases can be made whether the people answering the questions are foreigners or US citizens) I deem this one an opinion not details to commit as factual.

[kwashburn]

Drew you certainly covered all your bases here and dug a little deeper than I did. I actual went back and forth on digging and searching for some answers on these things. Although most of our answers in terms of indicating whether something is a fact or opinion are the same some of reasons for them are a little different. You investigated more and I may have taken the instructions to the assignment a little to literal as it asked which statements "sounded like facts." I went back and forth on googling to find answers, although I did for a few out of my own curiosity to determine whether the statements with actual statistics were accurate. I actually indicated fact for number 4 but your research indicates that this might just be an opinion. Very interesting and nice work!

[stefanieoshea]

Drew, if this was college I would be looking over your shoulder for this test! When I read them I tried to think of how you could take them all at face value as facts, or you could do the research on them, but you did the research and answered them all! This makes me think of the millions of things people post on Facebook as "fact" but are in actuality just poorly researched random articles that people have posted and reposted to bring fact to their opinion. Well done!

[mlawes]

Well stated Drew. Your research seems very thorough. I think this is a great example of critical thinkers needing to come together with other critical thinkers to sharpen and refine our thinking. Your responses gave me a lot to think of and had me question whether I did enough research before coming to a conclusion. Thank you

[rreiter]

Stephanie,
Your response about Facebook made me think of this pair of quotes that were widely-shared but wrongly attributed to Martin Luther King and Mark Twain in the wake of the death of Osama Bin Laden:

www.cnn.com/2011/TECH/social.media/05/03/quotes.twain.mlk/index.html

Somebody claimed they were said by MLK and Twain, so that's what people believed. Not sure why I thought of that, but it was amusing and is somewhat relevant to this exercise.

[valerie]

Drew you did amazing research but I do not agree with you on 2, 3 , nor 4.

I understand the research about cigarette smoking but because the question wasn't clear on what is meant by smoking-I had to digress and stated it as an opinion. Is it the same for all smokers who smoke Marijuana( it was just stated Marijuana is good for your health, that it relieves pain etc),Nicotine-less cigarettes, or just any type of smoking? The statement also did not confirm if it was an action performed by an individual or if it was an action of things, for example, smoking meat.

For number 4. I see it as factual as some are color blind or they are not. Because the writer states it was out of every 100 Americans and was specific to the people they looked at, and tells me this was a sampling I saw this as more than an opinion piece but more of a stated fact. It is true the writer never told how many cases they looked at but if the sampling is large enough we can verify the validity.