IAQ LEXICON
This Is Not A Dictionary.
The IAQ Lexicon is a living map of ideas discovered inside questions.
Every IAQ article can introduce a new concept, reveal a hidden mechanism, or give a name to a pattern that did not have one before. When an idea becomes strong enough, it may enter the Lexicon.
But not every candidate appears here. There are far more Lexicon candidates living inside IAQ articles than the concepts currently published on this page. The Lexicon grows selectively, as ideas connect, deepen, and begin to form families of their own.
What Do The Levels Mean?
A higher level does not mean “better.” It means deeper in the conceptual chain.
The article feeds the Lexicon.
The Lexicon connects the articles.
Sometimes one question creates a word that helps us ask the next question differently.
Not all words are written. Some are discovered.
IAQ Lexicon
Explanation Burden
Power turns preference into a decision; less power turns it into a case.
The unequal requirement placed on lower-power or lower-trust people to justify their needs, boundaries, choices, delays, disagreement, or presence with additional context, evidence, apology, and personal disclosure. Explanation Burden allows powerful people to present preferences as decisions while others must convert equivalent preferences into defensible cases.
Examples
- one person’s refusal being accepted while another must disclose private circumstances
- a junior worker providing extensive evidence for a disagreement
- an unfamiliar visitor having to explain why they belong in an open space
- a person repeatedly retelling the same context across institutional departments
- a concise answer being interpreted as disrespect only when spoken by lower status
Related Concepts
First Appeared In
Why Do People With Less Power Have to Explain Themselves More?
Origin
Placed beneath Administrative Burden because explanation is a distinct learning, compliance, credibility, and psychological cost repeatedly imposed on people seeking access, flexibility, belief, or correction from a more powerful system.