IPA Research Affiliate Abhijit Banerjee writes of the importance of taking evidence seriously. 

Here is an entirely banal idea that I think has the potential to change the world: Take evidence seriously.

Taking evidence seriously does not mean privileging numbers over all other forms of knowledge - theories, narratives, images. Nor does it mean the kind of radical scepticism that questions everything to the point where no action is possible.

What it does mean is being very conscious of the quality of evidence, about the danger of naively interpreting the patterns that we see in the world.