Stylized facts

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In social sciences, especially economics, a stylized fact is a simplified presentation of an empirical finding. While results in statistics can only be shown to be highly probable, in a stylized fact, they are presented as true. They are a means to represent complicated statistical findings in an easy way. A stylized fact is often a broad generalization, which although essentially true may have inaccuracies in the detail.

A prominent example of a stylized fact: "Every level of higher education--high school, College degree, Diploma/Masters and Advanced/Professional degree significantly raises (lifetime) income."

As noted above, scrutiny to detail will often produce counterexamples. In the case given above, it is known that a PhD actually lowers lifetime income^{[citation needed]} but the stylized fact holds in general, nonetheless.