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Citation

Cole, Stephen R.; Chu, Haitao; Brookhart, M. Alan; & Edwards, Jessie K. (2017). Dogmatists Cannot Learn. Epidemiology, 28(2), e10-1. PMCID: PMC5285453

Abstract

We wish to provide some rational in defense of the title of this comment. If we agree that a
dogmatist is one whose beliefs cannot be influenced by observations (i.e., data), and we
define learning as having your beliefs influenced by observations, then it follows that
dogmatists cannot learn. While this statement has been made previously ((1), page 47)(2),
we believe it is useful to expand on this point with a simple example. Indeed, some dangers
of dogmatism in epidemiology have been documented (e.g. (3)), and one does not have to
look far for trivial examples of dogmatic statements (4).

URL

http://dx.doi.org/10.1097/ede.0000000000000587

Reference Type

Journal Article

Year Published

2017

Journal Title

Epidemiology

Author(s)

Cole, Stephen R.
Chu, Haitao
Brookhart, M. Alan
Edwards, Jessie K.

Article Type

Letter

PMCID

PMC5285453

ORCiD

Edwards, J -0000-0002-1741-335X