Pottery‑study myth traced to photography

A widely‑cited 'experiment' comparing quantity‑vs‑quality in pottery is not a randomized study but an anecdote from the book Art & Fear; the book's authors later admitted the story originally concerned a photography class (Jerry Uelsmann) and was retold without methodological detail. The result commonly quoted as evidence for 'produce more to improve' therefore rests on an undocumented anecdote, not verifiable data. — It warns that commonly used 'empirical' anecdotes in culture and pedagogy debates can be provenance‑free myths, so public arguments built on them are fragile and should be retraced.