Statement: "Two students in this class failed, so the teaching must be poor." The flaw is that it
- A. generalises from a very small and unrepresentative sample
- B. appeals to emotion
- C. presents a false dilemma
- D. reverses cause and effect
Explanation
Two cases say nothing about a whole class, and the failures might reflect absence, illness or individual circumstances rather than teaching quality. A hasty generalisation draws a broad conclusion from too little evidence. The pass rate of the whole class compared with other classes would be the relevant data.
Related questions
Argument: "Students who take extra classes score higher, so extra classes cause higher scores." The main weakness of this argument is that it
Statement: "Every time I wash my car, it rains." This reasoning is flawed because it
Which of the following, if true, would most weaken the argument that a new drug is effective because patients improved after taking it?
Which of the following, if true, would most strengthen the claim that a city's new bus lanes reduced traffic congestion?
Identify the assumption: "We should build a new hospital because the population of the district has doubled."