Evidence Picking

A broader and more blatant form of cherry-picking where you selectively choose which pieces of evidence to present, creating a false narrative. It’s the borderer form between simply omitting data and actively fabricating it. You present your "evidence" as a complete picture, but it's actually a carefully curated collection of facts that support your case, with all contradictory facts left on the cutting room floor. It’s the hallmark of a biased documentary or a misleading advertisement.

Example: "The documentary was just evidence picking; they interviewed only happy customers and completely ignored the thousands with complaints."

by Dumu The Void March 11, 2026

Evidence Bias

The unfair weighting or dismissal of evidence based on its source or form, rather than its content. It’s the habit of automatically accepting a statistic from a known source while reflexively dismissing an eyewitness account as "just a story." This bias pre-filters reality, allowing some pieces of information in while barring others at the gate, regardless of their actual merit. It’s the intellectual equivalent of judging a book by its cover and refusing to open it.

Example: "He wouldn't believe my first-hand account of the protest, but immediately trusted a police report that contradicted it. That's Evidence Bias in action."

by Dumu The Void March 11, 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

Evidence-Based Bias

The specific bias where one treats "evidence-based" as an automatic warrant for one's position and a automatic disqualifier for others', without actually engaging the quality, relevance, or interpretation of the evidence. Evidence-Based Bias operates when someone says "the evidence supports my view" as a conversation-ender, without acknowledging that evidence is always interpreted, that different evidence can support different conclusions, that evidence alone never dictates policy or values, and that "evidence-based" is often claimed by all sides. It's the bias that turns the legitimate principle of grounding claims in evidence into a rhetorical cudgel.

Example: "He kept saying his position was 'evidence-based' as if that settled everything—pure Evidence-Based Bias, using the word 'evidence' to avoid actually discussing what the evidence showed."

by Dumu The Void March 13, 2026

Evidence-Based Fallacy

A fallacy and metafallacy where scientific evidence is invoked to justify positions that lie outside the proper domain of evidence—particularly bigotry, prejudice, racism, xenophobia, aporophobia (hatred of the poor), and other forms of discrimination. The fallacy operates by claiming that discriminatory policies or attitudes are "supported by evidence" (about crime rates, economic impacts, cultural differences) while ignoring that evidence never dictates values, that statistical patterns don't justify moral judgments, and that using evidence to justify oppression misuses the very concept of evidence. It's a metafallacy because it weaponizes the legitimate authority of science to defend what science cannot possibly justify—treating "evidence-based" as a blank check for any position that can find a supporting statistic, regardless of the values, ethics, and human consequences involved.

Example: "He cited crime statistics to justify housing discrimination—the Evidence-Based Fallacy in full flower, using numbers to launder prejudice while pretending that evidence alone could ever justify treating humans as less than human."

by Dumu The Void March 13, 2026

Evidence-Based Moralism

A form of moralism where "evidence-based" becomes not a commitment to grounding claims in data but a weapon for dismissing views one dislikes and a badge of personal virtue. The evidence-based moralist treats their own positions as simply "what the evidence shows" and opponents' views as not just wrong but morally suspect—irrational, anti-science, dangerous. Evidence becomes a cudgel rather than a tool, a way of ending conversations rather than advancing them. The moralism lies in using the prestige of "evidence" to launder personal judgments, treating empirical support for one's views as proof of one's virtue, and dismissing those who interpret evidence differently as morally deficient rather than just differently persuaded.

Example: "He didn't argue—he just kept saying his position was 'evidence-based' and hers wasn't, as if that settled everything. Evidence-Based Moralism: using the word 'evidence' to avoid having to provide any."

by Abzugal Nammugal Enkigal March 14, 2026

Evidence-Based Puritanism

A purity culture within communities that elevate "evidence-based" as the supreme standard of legitimacy, where proper relationship to evidence becomes a test of virtue and belonging. Evidence-based puritanism demands that true members base all claims on approved kinds of evidence (usually quantitative, experimental, published in high-impact journals), treat other forms of knowledge as illegitimate, and maintain the purity of evidentiary standards against contamination by alternative ways of knowing. Members compete to demonstrate their evidentiary rigor, their commitment to "what the evidence shows," their willingness to dismiss anything that doesn't meet their standards. The result is a community that claims to value evidence while being dogmatically closed to the full range of human knowledge, treating "evidence-based" as a club rather than a commitment.

Example: "She cited decades of community experience, and they dismissed it as 'anecdotal'—Evidence-Based Puritanism, where only their kind of evidence counts, and anyone who doesn't have it is simply ignored."

by Abzugal Nammugal Enkigal March 14, 2026