Skip to main content

Ivory Biases

The collection of cognitive biases, meta-biases, and institutional distortions that arise specifically from operating within ivory tower environments—academic, intellectual, and expert communities that are isolated from the broader society they study. Ivory biases include the tendency to mistake disciplinary consensus for universal truth, to overvalue theoretical elegance over practical messy reality, to confuse academic prestige with actual insight, to dismiss non-credentialed knowledge as inherently inferior, and to treat one's own cultural position as the neutral "view from nowhere." These biases are not individual failings but systemic products of ivory culture—the water intellectuals swim in, invisible to them but shaping every perception. Ivory biases explain how brilliant people can be so wrong about so much, how experts can miss what's obvious to outsiders, how the academy can produce knowledge that is rigorous and irrelevant in equal measure.
Example: "He couldn't understand why his perfectly logical policy paper was useless to actual policymakers—his Ivory Biases had made him value theoretical elegance over practical feasibility, and he'd never even noticed."
by Dumu The Void March 14, 2026
mugGet the Ivory Biases mug.

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
mugGet the Evidence-Based Moralism mug.

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
mugGet the Evidence-Based Puritanism mug.

Mr.Based

You shouldn't make make money doing that, you are not Mr.Based.
by Dom Bertucci May 31, 2025
mugGet the Mr.Based mug.

Science Based Lifting

Science-based lifting refers to a training approach that emphasizes using scientific principles and research findings to optimize workout routines, nutrition, and recovery.
Gymbro 1 - "Yo bro, you tryna do some keenan flaps?"
Gymbro 2 - " Get this science based lifting snot out of my face"
by sciencebasedlifter June 3, 2025
mugGet the Science Based Lifting mug.

Stubby based

The state of being piss drunk off stubby-sized beers (typically 375ml bottles) for an extended, often reckless, period of time. Usually involves poor decisions, limited memory retention, and a deep commitment to the Aussie art of day drinking.
He asked his missus to be stubby based with him — she laid him off immediately, so he went on a three-day bender.
by Frellcon July 20, 2025
mugGet the Stubby based mug.

Time-Based Simulation

Refers to the Time-Based Simulation hypothesis. This hypothesis suggests instead of a big bang portions of the universe were sucked into an ultimate black hole so quickly that "time" was left separate from space-time.

This all encompassing "time" without space created a simulation of matter aka space. This allows for multiple dimensions, Quantum Tethering, and Time dilation due to time simulating previous space without an existing space to do so. This also restricts time within the Time-Based Simulation from creating a simulation within the simulation.
by Klueade August 12, 2025
mugGet the Time-Based Simulation mug.

Share this definition

Sign in to vote

We'll email you a link to sign in instantly.

Or

Check your email

We sent a link to

Open your email