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A systemic flaw where data and phenomena observed in controlled, simplified laboratory conditions fail to accurately represent their behavior in the messy, complex, and interconnected real world. This bias arises because labs deliberately isolate variables and eliminate "noise," which often strips away the very contextual forces that shape outcomes in nature, society, or technology. The lab result is "true" only within its sterile vacuum, creating a potentially dangerous illusion of understanding that cracks under real-world pressures. It's the map that's perfectly accurate for a single, empty room, but useless for navigating a city.
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