The Dangers of Hasty Generalizations Speech.

Authors Avatar

Hasty Generalization

START WITH EXAMPLE:  on September 11, 2001 terrorists crashed two planes into the twin towers of the New York stock exchange.  The terrorists were allegedly Muslim.  Soon after this event, many Americans came to believe that all Muslims were terrorists.  Even today the so-called “random” searches done at airports and borders predominantly target those of middle-eastern descent.  This is an example of hasty generalization that we are all familiar with. As you can see from the example, hasty generalization is a logical fallacy that occurs when one draws an inductive conclusion based on insufficient or biased evidence.  Put in simpler terms:

→Draw this on board:  

Join now!
  1. Sample S, which is too small, is taken from population P.
  2. Conclusion C is drawn about Population P based on S.

Now, why is this relevant you ask? Prejudice, racism and sexism are present in everyday life. We all partake in them, consciously or not.  For example, seeing two teenage girls talking at the bus stop, we automatically assume that they are gossiping about trivial matters due to stereotypical depictions of such.  Making hasty generalizations must be avoided, thus reducing the influence of bias.

For instance, have you ever encountered this sort of ad while browsing ...

This is a preview of the whole essay