HASTY GENERALIZATION

Also known as:

Fallacy of Insufficient Statistics
Fallacy of Insufficient Sample
Leaping to A Conclusion
Hasty Induction
Converse Accident
Hasty generalization is a type of informal fallacy (an argument whose stated premises fail to support
its proposed conclusion people commit when they draw conclusions a!ut all the persons or things in a
given class on the !asis of our knowledge a!out one (or only a very few of the mem!ers of that class"
#hen does hasty generali$ation often committed%
It is often committed when the sample is too small" #hen making a generai$ation& it is important
to have samples that are large enough"
Common reasons why people tend to generali$e hastily%
!ias or pre'udice
o ()ample: Someone who is a se)ist might conclude that all women are unfit to fly 'et
fighters !ecause one woman crashed one"
la$iness or sloppiness
o It is very easy to simply leap to a conclusion and much harder to gather an ade*uate
sample and draw a 'ustified conclusion"
Examples:
+" ,ark& who is from -am!oanga& decides to attend graduate school at ./- 0niversity" He has
never !een to ,anila !efore" 1he day after he arrives& he is walking !ack from an orientation
session and sees two white (al!ino !irds chirping on a tree" In his ne)t letter home& he tells his
family that !irds in ,anila are white"
2" 3am is riding her !ike in her home town in Antipolo& minding her own !usiness" A !us comes up
!ehind her and the driver starts !eeping his horn and then tries to force her off the road" As he
goes !y& the driver yells 4get on the sidewalk where you !elong54 After seeing that it is a !us& 3am
concludes that all !us drivers are impatient"
6" 3eter: 4/ou know& those feminists all hate men"4
7uan: 48eally%4
3eter: 4/eah" I was in my philosophy class the other day and that 8achel chick gave a
presentation"4
7uan: 4#hich 8achel%4
3eter: 4/ou know her" She9s the one that runs that feminist group over at the #omen9s Center"
She said that men are all se)ist pigs" I asked her why she !elieved this and she said that her last
few !oyfriends were real se)ist pigs" 4
7uan: 41hat doesn9t sound like a good reason to !elieve that all of us are pigs"4
3eter: 41hat was what I said"4
7uan: 4#hat did she say%4
3eter: 4She said that she had seen enough of men to know we are all pigs" She o!viously hates
all men"4
7uan: 4So you think all feminists are like her%4
3eter: 4Sure" 1hey all hate men"4