Proof or preference, say which

A small online shop in Manama sells glasses frames, and its product pages make two kinds of claim.

Some are claims of fact. These lenses cut out blue light. This hinge survives years of opening and closing. This material will not fade in the sun. Others are matters of taste. These frames suit a round face. This shade of tortoiseshell looks more grown up than black.

Both are fine things to say. The trouble starts when they are dressed up as each other.

If the shop is claiming a fact, it should show how it knows. Which test, done by whom, on what. Better still, it should welcome a customer who knows more pointing out a mistake, because the aim is for the claim to be true, not merely to sound it. A fact that will not show its working is asking to be believed rather than checked.

If the shop is offering an opinion, it can simply say so. We think these suit a round face. Customers are allowed to disagree, many will, and nobody is harmed.

What does not work is the hybrid: an opinion about what looks grown up, propped up with a borrowed figure and the word proven. The customer feels pushed, and can no longer tell what is being offered as true. The opinion loses its charm because it is pretending to be science. The genuine facts on the same page lose their weight, because they now sit beside something dressed up.

The honest page is not the one with the most evidence on it. It is the one where a reader can tell which sentences are evidence and which are taste.