The fetishization of the Randomized Controlled Trial (RCT) as the "gold standard" to the point of dismissing all other forms of evidence, even in fields where RCTs are unethical, impossible, or meaningless. This bias assumes that if you can't randomize it and control it, you can't truly know it, making vast areas of social science and humanities seem illegitimate.
Example: A policymaker rejects a successful, community-developed poverty alleviation program because "there's no RCT proving it works better than a placebo intervention." The RCT bias prioritizes methodological purity over observable, real-world effectiveness, paralyzing action with impossible standards of proof.
by Dumu The Void February 9, 2026
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