What is Exactimate?
1.
exactimate: a combination of estimate and exact.
(a) referring to the fallacy of 'Truth' as obtainable through scientific practices.
(b) a synonym of BS
(c) efforts made to convince others of a claim of which you yourself are unconvinced.
(d) a tactic that is often used when writing papers in the social sciences and natural sciences . . .sometimes with the aide of statistics.
The student had absolutely no idea what her data meant regarding the theory of Social Capital. However, passing her dissertation demanded that she convince others that her data did indeed say "something". Since Social Capital theory seemed like a safe bet, she decided she would exactimate and hope not to be caught. She figured that statistics might help create a veil over her exactimation, and she was correct.
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