Sometimes there are clever things you could try, for example find out whether female chimpanzees like chocolate more than male chimpanzees… but of course there are situations where the rational answer is simply “I don’t know”.
That doesn’t necessarily mean no data, but could mean data that you strongly suspect are filtered or fake, without being able to sort out this mess. In other words, all evidence you have is very weak evidence: personal evidence may be weak because it is likely to be a result of your bubble (you are more likely to associate with people who like chocolate as much as you do), media evidence may be weak because media do not have sufficient incentives to say true things.
EDIT: Of course, saying “I don’t know” can make both sides angry that you don’t see how the stereotype of obviously true/false. Sometimes it is smarter to not say what you actually believe, even if the actual belief is “I don’t know”.
Sometimes there are clever things you could try, for example find out whether female chimpanzees like chocolate more than male chimpanzees… but of course there are situations where the rational answer is simply “I don’t know”.
That doesn’t necessarily mean no data, but could mean data that you strongly suspect are filtered or fake, without being able to sort out this mess. In other words, all evidence you have is very weak evidence: personal evidence may be weak because it is likely to be a result of your bubble (you are more likely to associate with people who like chocolate as much as you do), media evidence may be weak because media do not have sufficient incentives to say true things.
EDIT: Of course, saying “I don’t know” can make both sides angry that you don’t see how the stereotype of obviously true/false. Sometimes it is smarter to not say what you actually believe, even if the actual belief is “I don’t know”.