I’ve actually been wondering about the value of fictional evidence. Particularly reading a pile of Hitchens book reviews, wherein he strongly advocates good fiction for its power to explore and teach you how humans work. Off the top of my head I can think of more accurate methods, but stories are natural to humans so may well be a much more powerful vector than popularisations of psychological research. I’m not entirely convinced by the Hitchens line but was surprised to see him pushing it so vehemently.
I’ve actually been wondering about the value of fictional evidence. Particularly reading a pile of Hitchens book reviews, wherein he strongly advocates good fiction for its power to explore and teach you how humans work. Off the top of my head I can think of more accurate methods, but stories are natural to humans so may well be a much more powerful vector than popularisations of psychological research. I’m not entirely convinced by the Hitchens line but was surprised to see him pushing it so vehemently.
Edit: Wei Dai addressed this point a couple of years ago, with Fictional Evidence vs Fictional Insight.