Hasty Generalization

A hasty generalization is a reasoning flaw in which a speaker makes a broad generalization based on isolated examples or insufficient evidence. For example, suppose Jeff notes in his speech that actor and comedian George Burns smoked for decades and lived to be a hundred years old and then concludes that smoking can’t really be that bad. Jeff’s claim would be unreasonable (and dangerous) to draw a universal conclusion about the health risks of smoking by the case study of one person. As a speaker, you can avoid this fallacy by providing sufficient evidence and examples that directly relate to the topic and that are representative of the arguments you are advancing.