[roel_v]

Isn't it strange that when somebody looks for something 84 times, that a prosecutor sees that as more important as someone looking for it only once? So a stupid person who needs to read something 84 times, or whose dog eats his printed version 83 times, is more likely to 'have done it' as the person who understands it on the first try or doesn't have a dog?

[Steko]

Is it really that strange? I think the idea is to show a fixation or continuing interest. I've googled some terms dozens of times because I know it will return the wiki or imbd page.

[roel_v]

It depends on the timeline I guess. But the amount of added 'suspicion' is much bigger between 0 and 1 lookups than between 1 and 84 lookups. What I mean is, when somebody looks something up only once, that says a lot about what they think about or plan to do. When somebody looks it up multiple times, well that at most shows that they have a continuing interest as you say. It's not like everybody once in a while randomly decides 'hey, I'm going to look up how to make chloroform' and that only the people who do it several times over several months actually do it.

My point was, why hammer on the '84 times'? Isn't just the one time just as much a 'smoking gun'?

[bradleyland]

I guess it depends on an individual's perception.

One time - I searched for something out of curiosity.

Eighty-four times - I searched for the term on several occasions because I was using it as part of some process or had an ongoing need for the information. Or possibly I was going to use it in some process, but decided not to, then revisited it later when I considered it again.

Inference is an important part of human cognition. We're pretty good at it. The subtle differences in the details influence the inferred outcome, and they should.

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Note that I am not suggesting this inference should be the basis for a conviction in trial by jury. The standard by which we judge evidence in a trial is not the same standard by which we develop opinions.

[sili]

You've never googled chloroform just out of curiosity?

[roel_v]

I just now did for the first time ;)