The intellectual posture where the primary goal is not to understand, but to disprove or expose something as fraudulent, especially if it is popular, unconventional, or emotionally resonant. This bias is characterized by a pre-commitment to negation, applying hyper-skeptical scrutiny to the target while giving the skeptical narrative itself a free pass. It's skepticism weaponized into a hobby, where the debunker's identity is built on being the one who says "actually, you're wrong."
Example: When a well-documented historical account of resistance to tyranny inspires people, a historian with Debunking Bias will exclusively focus on minor inconsistencies in a single diary entry to loudly declare the entire narrative a "myth," not to improve accuracy, but to perform a ritual of superiority by tearing down a meaningful story.
by Abzugal Nammugal Enkigal February 4, 2026
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