Interpretative Overconfidence
'Interpretative overconfidence
' occurs when researchers express excessive certainty about the meaning or implications of their findings, going beyond what the data objectively support.
Common manifestations
- Drawing causal conclusions from correlational or observational data
- Presenting model outputs (e.g., risk scores, AUCs, SHAP values) as clinically actionable without external validation
- Ignoring limitations or uncertainty in measurement, sampling, or context
- Overstating the generalizability or novelty of results
Example in clinical research
Claiming that a machine learning model can prevent disease simply because it predicts risk with high accuracy on retrospective data.
Consequences
- Misguides clinical decision-making
- Inflates perceived scientific progress
- Erodes public and professional trust in medical research
'In summary:
' interpretative overconfidence distorts the relationship between evidence and conclusion, leading to potentially misleading or unjustified claims.