Unjustified faith in numerical quantities#
Labels metricophilia as
“the unjustified faith in numerical quantities as having particularly special status as ‘evidence’ (Smith 2011)” source
The quote is drawn from Simpson (2017) which includes related quotes such as
"It suggests teachers and policy makers are prone to ‘metricophilia’: the ‘expectation that quantitative data – virtually on their own – will give us the answers on which to base policy in education’ (Smith 2011, 633).
References#
Smith, R. 2011. “Beneath the Skin: Statistics, Trust, and Status.” Educational Theory 61 (6): 633–645.