False balance and harmony preservation are cultural meta‑fallacies that treat all views as equally credible regardless of evidence. This essay explores how they relate to the Neutral Pathway factor, ideological scaffolding, and Spillover Effect, and offers practical ways to recognise when “both sides” becomes a trap rather than a virtue.

Through the story of Alex’s investment journey, this sci‑comm essay introduces the Neural Pathway Fallacy (NPF) factors—Lazy Thinking, Special Reasoning, Neutral Pathway, Spillover—and the Composite NPF Index (CNI) as a proposed measure of belief‑network entrenchment. It then shows how protocols like the Binary Belief Protocol, Proportional Scrutiny, prebunking, cross‑training, and dopamine rechanneling can help loosen entrenched networks.