Wiktionary
vb. (present participle of cherry pick English)
Wikipedia
Cherry picking, suppressing evidence, or the fallacy of incomplete evidence is the act of pointing to individual cases or data that seem to confirm a particular position, while ignoring a significant portion of related cases or data that may contradict that position. It is a kind of fallacy of selective attention, the most common example of which is the confirmation bias. Cherry picking may be committed intentionally or unintentionally. This fallacy is a major problem in public debate.
The term is based on the perceived process of harvesting fruit, such as cherries. The picker would be expected to only select the ripest and healthiest fruits. An observer who only sees the selected fruit may thus wrongly conclude that most, or even all, of the fruit is in such good condition. This can also give a false impression of the quality of the fruit (since it is only a sample and is not a representative sample).
A concept sometimes confused with cherry picking is the idea of gathering only the fruit that is easy to harvest, while ignoring other fruit that is higher up on the tree and thus more difficult to obtain (see low-hanging fruit).
Cherry picking can be found in many logical fallacies. For example, the "fallacy of anecdotal evidence" tends to overlook large amounts of data in favor of that known personally, "selective use of evidence" rejects material unfavorable to an argument, while a false dichotomy picks only two options when more are available. Cherry picking can refer to the selection of data or data sets so a study or survey will give desired, predictable results which may be misleading or even completely contrary to reality.
Cherry picking, in basketball and certain other sports, refers to play where one player (the cherry picker) does not play defense with the rest of the team but remains near the opponents' goal.
If the opponents do not designate a player to stay near the cherry picker, they will have a 5-on-4 advantage as they try to score, but if the defense steals the ball, it could make a long pass to the cherry picker for an uncontested goal. Acquiring the ball by a violation or foul, or after a made basket, the cherry picker is less relevant, as the opponents have more time to put their own defense in place.
Disapproval of cherry picking stems from the fact that the cherry picker is not playing the "complete" game and accumulates statistics for points scored that exaggerate the player's prowess.
Cherry picking is the fallacy of selecting evidence that supports an argument while ignoring evidence that contradicts it.
Cherry picking may also refer to:
- Harvesting fruit from cherry trees
- Cherry picking (basketball), a strategy in basketball where a player stays near the opponents' goal rather than playing defense
- Cherry-picking tax avoidance, a form of tax avoidance in Australia in the 1970s and 1980s
- Cherry-picking, moving only some revisions from one branch to another in version control
Usage examples of "cherry picking".
Instead of cherry picking, ye could at least have the decency to try it on with somebody your own age.
The tanks were again doing great work of cherry picking God Kings on their small craft with 120mm smoothbore main guns.
Or maybe the aunt and uncle live on a farm, and there are some migrant workers who come for the midsummer cherry picking.