Tham khảo tài liệu 'critical thinking skills success_5', ngoại ngữ, anh ngữ phổ thông phục vụ nhu cầu học tập, nghiên cứu và làm việc hiệu quả | MISUSING INDUCTIVE REASONING-LOGICAL FALLACIES both A and B or a reversal B caused A and not the other way around . Jumping to Conclusions Hasty Generalization In this fallacy there are too few samples to prove a point. While you can t be expected to poll thousands of people or know the outcome of every instance of a particular event your sample must be large enough to draw a conclusion from. For example a waitress complains those Southerners left me a lousy tip. All Southerners are cheap She has made a generalization about tens of millions of people based on an experience with a few of them. A hasty generalization takes the following form 1. A very small sample A is taken from population B. 2. Generalization C is made about population B based on sample A. There are two common reasons for hasty generalizations. One is because of bias or prejudice. For instance a sexist person could conclude that all women are bad drivers because he had an accident with one. See Lesson 8 for more information about bias and prejudice in arguments. Hasty generalizations are also often made because of negligence or laziness. It is not always easy to get a large enough sample to draw a reasonable conclusion. But if you can t get the right sample do not make the generalization. Better yet make an attempt to add to your sample size. Improve your argument with better evidence. How do you know when your sample is large enough There is no one rule that applies to every type of sample so you will need to use the practicality and reasonability test. What is the largest sample you can gather that makes sense practically Will it be large enough so that you can reasonably make a generalization about it Reread the section on statistics in Lesson 10 to refresh your memory about the problems that can occur when taking a sample and how those problems can be recognized and or avoided. Make an effort to avoid jumping to conclusions and learn to spot such conclusions in the arguments of others by being
