Fallacy

 

                                               (image: youtube.com)

Isa day hindunggan motoo na dajon. Sometimes, we really wonder why some people capitalize “isolated cases”.

An “isolated case” is just a one-off case — it doesn’t represent any general or specific pattern. Otherwise, lawyers would describe the isolated case as being “a case unique on its own facts.”

The ‘isolated’ here means happening rarely or practically only as a unique incident. Therefore, it means it is separate (‘isolated’) from everything else.

But why is it that some people jump directly to conclusion about things they hear and observe even if these are just isolated cases?

The hasty generalization fallacy is sometimes called the over-generalization fallacy. It is basically making a claim based on evidence that it just too small. Essentially, you can't make a claim and say that something is true if you have only an example or two as evidence (owl.exelsior.edu).

In conducting research, one can never draw a conclusion from an isolated case. The thematic analysis is one thing that a researcher must undergo to break responses into codes then group them into themes. Hasty generalization is drawing a conclusion based on a small sample size, rather than looking at statistics that are much more in line with the typical or average situation.

If so, is there an underlying reason why do people perform hasty generalizations aside from the inability to conduct scientific qualitative inferences?

According to Rangan (2019) psychologists have found that basically there are reasons why people pass judgments:

A person, who has low self-esteem, uses judgment and hasty generalization to put oneself in a position of control. By labeling the person attempts to exert control over others and establishes oneself as the complete opposite. This is cathartic for the individual and offers him or her power.

As a general rule, the more insecure a person is about themselves, the more judgmental they’ll be toward others. This might be about personal appearance, social standing, achievement, fitness, health, age, or even behavior.

A lot has to do with a person’s upbringing and past experiences as well.

With these, when we will be hurt by these people, we try to remember how blessed we are to be loved and affirmed by our parents. We look back at our happy childhood years and pity those who are still nursing on their pains.