The Proteus phenomenon is the tendency in science for early replications of a work to contradict the original findings, a consequence of publication bias.
[1] It is akin to the winner's curse.
[2] The term was coined by John Ioannidis and Thomas A. Trikalinos in 2005 named after the Greek god Proteus who could rapidly change his appearance.
[3] A 2013 paper argued that the phenomenon might be "desirable or even optimal" from a scientific standpoint.
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