Evidence-based policy (EBP) is an idea in public policy proposing that policy decisions should be based on, or informed by, rigorously established objective evidence. The implied contrast here is with policymaking based on ideology or 'common sense'. It is also assumed that social goals are best served when scientific evidence is used rigorously and comprehensively to inform decisions, rather than in a piecemeal, manipulated, or cherry-picked manner. The move towards evidence-based policy has its roots in the larger movement towards evidence-based practice, which was prompted by the rise of evidence-based medicine in the 1980s. It is, nevertheless, a controversial idea.