More by Glossary of selected Judgement and Decision-making, Belief-related, and other Psychology terms »
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Independent » independence Of the attitude of an actor who is to a considerable degree free of the influence of others' judgements, opinions, interests, motivations, or beliefs; of the quality of something - not controlled, constrained, requiring or relying upon, or under the influence of something else; a property of two (or more) events such that the probability that one event will occur is unaffected by the occurrence of another (others): this is “statistical independence”; a state in which changes in one variable do not systematically vary with changes in another (see: orthogonal); the characteristic of a given proposition that its truth does not rely on the truth of other particular propositions.
Independent evidence Evidence separate from and not relying upon the reasons originally introduced as supporting a claim advanced for acceptance and from interested parties to the claim, for example, proponents or critics – especially sources of evidence which are capable of verification; also, evidence helping to establish a claim beyond any appeal to a claim’s explanatory power.
For example, in a situation in which staff at a restaurant, shop, or bank, etc., are charged as having indulged in aggressive or abusive behaviour, the security camera footage from the business premises may be considered independent evidence if it has not been tampered or interfered with, and may be useful to the extent that the images are of sufficient resolution and the cameras captured the crucial ‘action’, such as facial expressions and movement of the relevant actors’ lips when it matters most – and thereby be decisive in showing whether the claims are true.
On a somewhat lighter note, in a dispute over whether a particular television programme was aired in the local broadcast area at some time, say, in 1965, the hometown newspaper would be a source of independent evidence since such media have ordinarily printed scheduled television and radio broadcast information.
(see also: evidence, quality of evidence, proof»prove, argument, (hidden) assumptions, establish, support, ground, verification, justification, controversies)
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