RDIV / ANSWER E-005 · EVIDENCE
How Should Contradictory Evidence Be Handled?
Contradictory evidence should remain visible, be independently tested, and affect confidence according to what the conflict actually establishes.
Fix the object first.
A contradiction exists when two or more pieces of evidence cannot all support the same factual proposition under the same definitions, identity, and time frame. Apparent conflicts often disappear after disambiguating dates, scopes, entities, or versions.
The visible label is not the whole system.
Hiding contradiction creates brittle conclusions. Preserving it makes the reasoning auditable and prevents later readers from mistaking confidence for certainty.
Trace the burden.
- Professional open-source investigation standards emphasize careful analysis and preservation of context.
- Contradictory records are common in complex investigations and require explicit handling.
- A contradiction alone does not identify which source is wrong.
- Some contradictions remain unresolved because the decisive record is unavailable.
Where the work adds something.
R/IV preserves contradiction as a first-class object. It rejects the practice of forcing every source into one narrative before the evidentiary conflict has been adjudicated.