Are There Faulty Generalizations?
In the case of a faulty generalization, a judgment is based on inaccurate or incomplete information. For example: “Ducks and geese migrate south for the winter; therefore, all birds migrate south for the winter.” In presentations, many subtle forms of inappropriate generalizations may occur. The most common form concerns research in one area being applied to other areas (as in a faulty analogy). For example: “The brain deals in electric potentials. Computers deal with electric potentials. We can thus say that the brain is a computer.” Another example of a faulty generalization is when an author observes only one event or cites only one case study and infers that this applies to many other phenomena. Sigmund Freud could be considered guilty of this – his theories of behavior are derived from only a few published observations of individual case studies.
