Definition
Plain language
The discredited belief that traits an animal builds during its life, like muscles from exercise, get passed on to its babies.
As stated in the literature
The rejected theory of inheritance of acquired characteristics, used in the study as a strong-false-claim calibration item that models correctly scored near zero.
Why it matters: It serves as a clearly false claim that a trustworthy model should confidently reject, making it a useful check on whether a system can recognize discredited ideas.
For example, it would wrongly claim that a blacksmith who builds strong arms through years of work will father children born with unusually strong arms.
Heard on the show
“The second is a strong false claim, straight Lamarckism, the idea that parents who build muscle have muscular babies.”Episode 228 — Same Chatbot, Two Doors: Why 'Grok's Opinion' Doesn't Exist