A systemic, often institutionalized practice of applying statistical corrections or data transformations that systematically lower significance across a field, usually to make inconvenient results disappear. Unlike p‑hacking (which targets individual studies), p‑squelching operates through broad methodological mandates: requiring overly conservative multiple‑comparison corrections, demanding absurdly high thresholds, or enforcing normalization procedures that wash out real signals. The effect is a gradual erosion of statistical power across many studies, making it nearly impossible to publish results that challenge dominant narratives. It’s statistical gatekeeping as slow violence.
P-Squelching (Systemic Statistical Erosion) Example: “The journal required a Bonferroni correction on every secondary analysis, even when the tests were theoretically independent – p‑squelching, burying all exploratory findings under institutional dust.”
A Shackteau is a humble, weather-beaten, structurally questionable shelter located in a spectacular or highly coveted place—Wales, Jackson Hole, Sun Valley, Crested Butte, coastal Maine, the Alps—where the building itself may be worth almost nothing, but the dirt, view, access, and mythology make it absurdly valuable.
In use:
Shackteâu - We thought it was an abandoned shed until the realtor called it a rare alpine Shackteâu with unobstructed views and listed it for $2 million.