Any program of research in which any possible pattern of results, including null results, leads to interesting, publishable findings. Related to the concept of a Xanatos gambit, where any possible outcome to a scheme or plan leads to a victory for the mastermind of the plan.
Did you hear about the new experiment we're running on the XYZ phenomenon? It's totes Xanatos research. Either we're going to show that XYZ is real... or if the effect isn't there we have enough subjects to do equivalence testing to show that the existing results in the literature about XYZ are specious.
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