Anecdotal Evidence: Bullying edition

The Wall Street Journal recently ran an article saying the recent attention given to bullying in schools is largely driven by a handful of large profile cases that have led to suicides, but not supported by any data. The article points out that data collected on bullying does not show an increase recently; in fact the opposite is true. This article is a good example of how the media (and all of us) can often be misled by anecdotal evidence into believing a claim without looking to see if the anecdotes are typical... Making decisions based on outliers might not be appropriate and a closer look at what is actually going on is likely going to lead to a more informed decision.