Occam's Broom
Updated 2026-08-15
INTRODUCTION
English translation pending.
CORE DEFINITION
Coined by the biologist Sydney Brenner as the inverse of Occam's razor, Occam's broom names the habit of hiding awkward facts that a favoured theory cannot explain. Rather than removing unnecessary assumptions, the practitioner removes the counterexamples. The qualifier is direction: the razor cuts surplus hypotheses while the broom conceals inconvenient data, so the two look similar only from a distance and have opposite effects on reliability.
SCAFFOLDING EFFECT
Reduce cognitive load
- Missing data check: ask what evidence is absent from an otherwise tidy and convenient story. - Falsification push: search actively for the results that were never reported anywhere. - Clean-theory alarm: distrust accounts that have no loose ends or anomalies at all.
Anchor fast decisions
A theory gains apparent simplicity when its anomalies are removed, so the incentive runs toward omission rather than revision. Selective reporting and selective attention lower the visible variance, which makes the account look more elegant and better supported than the underlying evidence allows. The broom adds no support; it removes the friction that would expose a weak claim.
MINIMUM ACTION
In progress 0/1Practice this model in one real situation:
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Source support: Explicit
- jbiol.biomedcentral.comhttps://jbiol.biomedcentral.com/article/10.1186/jbiol187verified
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