This is a Lexicon entry: the mechanism, when it shows up, and the countermeasure. The full correction, with real-world cases and the audit prompt, hasn't been written yet.
Definition
Any system or approach that forcibly imposes uniformity or conformity, often at the expense of individuality or natural variation. From the Greek myth of Procrustes, a bandit who tortured travelers to fit an iron bed.
When it shows up
Any ready-made framework, template or theory meeting a specific case: management models on a team, diagnostic categories on a patient, ideological lenses on an event.
Failure mode
The case is trimmed or stretched to fit the framework so the framework can explain it. Features that don't fit are treated as exceptions or noise. The framework 'validates' on cases whose evidence was bent to produce the validation.
Countermeasure
Ask: 'What does this case have that the framework has no category for?' If the answer is nothing, either the framework is extraordinarily complete or you are still trimming.
Related traps
Also connected in the map2 more, locked
Credit & first seen
PopularizedOriginates in Greek mythology; widely used as a metaphor in philosophy, medicine and social criticism.
Also revealed
Entry #43 of 631 in The Lexicon · see the full Lexicon