Scientific Method Biases

The collection of biases that distort how the scientific method is understood, applied, and evaluated—not biases within science, but biases about the scientific method itself. These include: treating the method as a rigid, unvarying procedure rather than a flexible set of practices; assuming all sciences use identical methods; believing the method guarantees truth rather than reducing error; mistaking the idealized textbook description for the messy reality of actual scientific practice; and using "the scientific method" as a cudgel to dismiss any inquiry that doesn't match one's narrow conception of it. Scientific Method Biases are the meta-cognitive errors that prevent people from understanding how science actually works.

Scientific Method Biases Example: "He dismissed an entire field as 'unscientific' because it didn't use double-blind randomized controlled trials—his Scientific Method Bias made him mistake one field's methods for the universal template of all science."

by Dumu The Void March 13, 2026

Objective Truth Biases

The collection of biases that cluster around the concept of "objective truth"—the tendency to treat one's own perspective as uniquely objective, to assume that objectivity requires the absence of perspective rather than the rigorous examination of it, to mistake culturally-shaped standards for universal ones, and to use "objectivity" as a weapon against views one dislikes while exempting one's own. These biases include: treating quantification as inherently more objective than qualitative description; assuming that numbers don't lie (while ignoring how they're collected, interpreted, and presented); believing that one's own cultural position is the "view from nowhere"; and using "objective truth" to dismiss the legitimacy of other ways of knowing.

Example: "His Objective Truth Biases meant he thought his perspective was simply 'reality' while everyone else had 'opinions'—he didn't see his own cultural assumptions as assumptions at all."

by Dumu The Void March 13, 2026

Evidence-Based Biases

The collection of biases that arise from the misapplication of "evidence-based" thinking—treating evidence as a magic word rather than a practice, demanding evidence asymmetrically, mistaking certain kinds of evidence (usually quantitative) as inherently superior, ignoring the values and assumptions embedded in what counts as "evidence," and using "evidence-based" to dismiss any claim that doesn't fit narrow evidentiary standards. These biases don't reject evidence—they fetishize it, turning a valuable tool into a weapon of dismissal and a shield against genuine engagement with complexity, uncertainty, and other ways of knowing.

Example: "His Evidence-Based Biases meant he demanded randomized controlled trials for community wisdom that had worked for centuries—not because he valued evidence, but because he valued only his kind of evidence."

by Dumu The Void March 13, 2026