Could Dominion War trauma have caused Data's infrequent emotion chip use in the movies?

We know from that one episode that certain officers had biases against being commanded by an android.

 

And if there is canonical evidence that he had war trauma, feel free to post that link too.

 

Fair enough. If this cannot be settled in canon, let's go to the licensed realm material, and here are the links: http://memory-beta.wikia.com/wiki/Emotion_chip and https://books.google.com/books?id=dCMHmKvygroC&dq .

Although not canonical, the Star Trek licensed books 'A Time To Die' and 'A Time to Be Born' reveal that Starfleet ordered that Data's emotions chip be removed. Not because of a technical issue, but because they feel his judgment was emotionally affected in telling Picard not to fire on an Androssi vessel that rescued him (Data). The Androssi later destroyed the USS Juno.

Thus in canon, neither Dominion War trauma nor chip malfunction can be proven or disproven. However in licensed material, chip malfunction is definitely not an issue. Admiral Nakamura says "We also had a chance to take a look at your emotion chip. We feel the socket on your neural net could be used for other purposes." He says nothing about a chip malfunction, especially after "we had a chance to take a look at your emotion chip."

Thus, in licensed material, a chip malfunction is definitively ruled out, but Dominion War trauma is not. Obviously the issue cannot be settled in canon.

 

Canonicity issues aside, “licensed” works like Star Trek novels, comics, etc., are never really seen as any legitimate form of evidence, as the people actually producing the shows/movies/etc. are under zero obligation to use any of that information in their work. So if, say, the new Picard show has a reference to Data’s emotion chip simply being faulty and he removed it of his own volition, “A Time to Die” and “A Time to be Born” become meaningless. Not to mention that the novels (being written by various authors over time) tend to contradict themselves quite often. For example, to my knowledge there are at least three different origins for Pike’s Number One from three different novels, none of which can be reconciled with the others.

 

I confess, I cheated. I don't believe in a no-win scenario.

 

The chip was in a deleted scene in Nemesis. Actually rather a crucial one.

 

Why remove it when in First Contact he turned it off and on at will, which comes in handy at the local strip club. Picard is even envious over the walking pile of fantasy effectively standing next to him. Though why Data needs to jostle his head to turn off the chip and I'm sure that beep noise would go over really well if he were in a library at the time... (visual and audible cues prevailing, out here in real life nothing of either sort would emit and then the end user would start hitting the keyboard with clenched fists...)

 

I think not

 

Data probably correctly deduced the chip might be damaged on dangerous missions. He wasn't wrong. In Insurrection, he was so badly damaged that only his ethical program functioned. If he had his chip on him, it might be irreparable.

In Nemesis, Data was outright destroyed.

Data probably has a knack of predicting particularly dangerous missions and removed his emotion chip before those missions.