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Research Dismissal

Telling people to "do your own research" or "educate yourself" instead of providing evidence for claims.

"Do your own research."

"I'm not going to educate you, Google exists."

"If you don't know by now, I can't help you."

"Educate yourself before commenting."

Why It's Unproductive​

Sounds like promoting critical thinking but dodges the burden of supporting claims. It's tempting because explaining feels like doing someone else's work, but it treats requesting sources as laziness rather than reasonable skepticism. Leaves claims unsubstantiated while framing the questioner as uninformed or unwilling to learn.

The Better Move​

If you're confident enough to make a claim, back it up. Drop a link, name a source, or summarize the key point. It takes thirty seconds and it's the difference between contributing to a conversation and shutting one down.

Why It's Better​

People asking for evidence are doing exactly what they should be doing. Meeting that with a source instead of a brushoff shows you actually stand behind what you said.

Examples​

OP: "Studies show this approach is ineffective." Antipattern: "Do your own research. I'm not going to spoon-feed you basic facts." Better: "This meta-analysis found limited effectiveness: [link]. The main issue was sample size in most of the studies."

OP: "I don't think the pricing works out that way for flat-rate API plans." Antipattern: "Please go read how the plan actually works before commenting." Better: "It's counterintuitive but lower usage actually costs them more on flat-rate. Here's the breakdown: [link]."

OP: "Is there evidence that blue light filters actually help with sleep?" Antipattern: "Google exists. This has been studied to death, educate yourself." Better: "The research is pretty mixed. This Cochrane review is a decent starting point: [link]. Short version is the effect is small if it exists at all."