1. Hasty generalisation
Alice is lying in bed, scrolling through online profiles, when she stumbles upon the profile of an old acquaintance, Bob. She sees that Bob has moved to a small town and is now posting pictures of picturesque landscapes. Alice jumps to the conclusion that small towns are filled with beautiful places and that Bob’s life must now be luxurious.
As she heads out for lunch at her favorite restaurant, she notices an older woman eating junk food and seems healthy. Based on this limited observation, Alice concludes that junk food is not actually unhealthy and orders fries and soda for herself.
On her way back home, Alice sees a motorcycle rider speeding down the road. This young rider reinforces her belief that all motorcycle riders are young, reckless, and fast.
Alice’s conclusions may seem naively formed, but in reality, this type of hasty generalization is a common human tendency. These conclusions are based on a small sample size of data and can lead to mistaken beliefs. To arrive at an accurate conclusion, it is important to seek out confirming or disconfirming evidence about the subject. Rather than jumping to conclusions, it is better to approach limited information with tentativeness and to investigate further. This approach helps to mitigate the risks associated with forming conclusions based on limited information.
Add Comment
This policy contains information about your privacy. By posting, you are declaring that you understand this policy:
- Your name, rating, website address, town, country, state and comment will be publicly displayed if entered.
- Aside from the data entered into these form fields, other stored data about your comment will include:
- Your IP address (not displayed)
- The time/date of your submission (displayed)
- Your email address will not be shared. It is collected for only two reasons:
- Administrative purposes, should a need to contact you arise.
- To inform you of new comments, should you subscribe to receive notifications.
- A cookie may be set on your computer. This is used to remember your inputs. It will expire by itself.
This policy is subject to change at any time and without notice.
These terms and conditions contain rules about posting comments. By submitting a comment, you are declaring that you agree with these rules:
- Although the administrator will attempt to moderate comments, it is impossible for every comment to have been moderated at any given time.
- You acknowledge that all comments express the views and opinions of the original author and not those of the administrator.
- You agree not to post any material which is knowingly false, obscene, hateful, threatening, harassing or invasive of a person's privacy.
- The administrator has the right to edit, move or remove any comment for any reason and without notice.
Failure to comply with these rules may result in being banned from submitting further comments.
These terms and conditions are subject to change at any time and without notice.
Comments