Not all claims demand equal evidence; the more specific or serious the claim, the more specific or serious the evidence needs to be. "Men are generally expected to pay for dates" is both very general and very mundane, in fact it's basically common knowledge, so it would be very strange to see a scientific study on the phenomenon. If you seriously dispute the idea that men are generally expected to pay for dates, then why don't you just state the type and quantity of evidence that would be needed to convince you?
"The police generally laugh off claims of rape" is about equally general but is MUCH more serious, as it is asserting pervasive malfeasance and violation of procedure on the part of the police, rather than simple gender proclivities. I told you what kind of evidence I would need to see to back up that claim, and you only managed to deliver one piece, and even that one was compromised somewhat by the fact that it mentioned absolutely no attempt to get the officers' side of the story.
If Dr. Lisak claims, with no independent verification, that he asked students certain questions and X% answered yes, then I have to be able to trust his word. Do you seriously think that the fact that Dr. Lisak makes an income from giving rape lectures is a lame reason for demanding independent verification of his claims?
"The police generally laugh off claims of rape" is about equally general but is MUCH more serious, as it is asserting pervasive malfeasance and violation of procedure on the part of the police, rather than simple gender proclivities. I told you what kind of evidence I would need to see to back up that claim, and you only managed to deliver one piece, and even that one was compromised somewhat by the fact that it mentioned absolutely no attempt to get the officers' side of the story.
If Dr. Lisak claims, with no independent verification, that he asked students certain questions and X% answered yes, then I have to be able to trust his word. Do you seriously think that the fact that Dr. Lisak makes an income from giving rape lectures is a lame reason for demanding independent verification of his claims?
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