Hasty Generalization Fallacy

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.

Hasty Generalization: This is a conclusion based on insufficient or biased evidence. In other words, you are rushing to a conclusion before you have all the relevant facts.

Even though it’s only the first day, I can tell this is going to be a boring course.

In this example, the author is basing his evaluation of the entire course on only the first day, which is notoriously boring and full of housekeeping tasks for most courses. To make a fair and reasonable evaluation the author must attend not one but several classes, and possibly even examine the textbook, talk to the professor, or talk to others who have previously finished the course in order to have sufficient evidence to base a conclusion on.

Inverse of this is The Slothful Induction Fallacy.

Personal Thoughts

There is common debate about how say a person’s course is a scam (ex: Hustler’s University). Well, how do you know it’s a scam? You haven’t taken it. You cannot make a Hasty Generalization based on a 1 minute clip of what I’ve said. Also, this is just everyone saying it. It’s a Bandwagon Appeal.