Designing the Investigation

Identify specific evidence sources for Event 1 (e.g., separate interviews with all three parties, communication logs, timeline artifacts).

Assess reliability and bias risks for Event 1 sources (e.g., retrospective rationalization, social desirability bias).

Design a structured data collection template for Event 1 that maps each hypothesis to the specific evidence items required to test it.

Identify specific evidence sources for Event 2 (e.g., competition media, judge scorecards, contestant and competitor interviews).

Assess reliability and bias risks for Event 2 sources (e.g., halo effect in judge evaluations, contestant's own attribution biases).

Design a structured data collection template for Event 2 that maps each hypothesis to the specific evidence items required to test it.