Hasty generalization

Hasty generalization is an informal fallacy of faulty generalization by reaching an inductive generalization based on insufficient evidence—essentially making a hasty conclusion without considering all of the variables. In statistics, it may involve basing broad conclusions regarding the statistics of a survey from a small sample group that fails to sufficiently represent an entire population.^[1] Its opposite fallacy is called slothful induction, or denying a reasonable conclusion of an inductive argument (e.g. "it was just a coincidence").

Examples

Hasty generalization usually shows this pattern

1. X is true for A.
2. X is true for B.
3. Therefore, X is true for C, D, etc.

For example, if a person travels through a town for the first time and sees 10 people, all of them children, they may erroneously conclude that there are no adult residents in the town.

Or: A person is looking at a number line. The number 1 is a square number; 3 is a prime number, 5 is a prime number, and 7 is a prime number; 9 is a square number; 11 is a prime number, and 13 is a prime number. Therefore, the person says, all odd numbers are either prime or square. In reality, 15 is a counterexample.

Alternative names

The fallacy is also known as:

• Illicit generalization
• Fallacy of insufficient sample
• Generalization from the particular
• Leaping to a conclusion
• Hasty induction
• Law of small numbers
• Unrepresentative sample
• Secundum quid

When referring to a generalization made from a single example it has been called the fallacy of the lonely fact^[2] or the proof by example fallacy.^[3]

When evidence is intentionally excluded to bias the result, it is sometimes termed the fallacy of exclusion and is a form of selection bias.^[4]

See also

Accident (fallacy) Availability bias Blind men and an elephant Categorical imperative redirected from "Generalization in Ethics" Cognitive distortion

Converse accident Generalization (logic) Generalization error Hypercorrection Pooh-pooh

Problem of induction Slothful induction Statistical significance Stereotype Syllogism

References

1. "Fallacy: Hasty Generalization (Nizkor Project)". Retrieved 2008-10-01.
2. Fischer, David Hackett (1970). Historians' Fallacies: Toward a Logic of Historical Thought. HarperCollins. pp. 109–110. ISBN 978-0-06-131545-9.
3. Marchant, Jamie. "Logical Fallacies". Retrieved 2011-04-26.
4. "Unrepresentative Sample". Retrieved 2008-09-01.

External links

• Common Logical Fallacies in Propaganda and Debate
• Fallacy: Hasty Generalization, Michael C. Labossiere's Fallacy Tutorial Pro
• Hasty Generalization, The Fallacy Files