P-Squelching (Systemic Statistical Erosion)

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.”

P-Squelching (Systemic Statistical Erosion) by Dumu The Void April 25, 2026