The text describes the influence of the law of contagion as a kind of overgeneralization, or sweeping generalization, in that people under its influence tend to:
A) avoid contact with all people whom they believe could have a disease, even when those people cannot transmit the disease to others.
B) engage in faulty inductive reasoning, in which they lack sufficient information to draw a well-reasoned conclusion.
C) believe in superstitious ideas that are stereotypes about people and so shun other people for being different from them.
D) generalize beyond the diseases individuals know they have and conclude that they also have other diseases.

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

The text states that under the influence of the law of contagion, people tend to avoid contact with all people whom they believe could have a disease, even when those people cannot transmit the disease to others. This is an example of overgeneralization or sweeping generalization, where a conclusion is drawn based on limited or incomplete information.

The Text Describes the Influence of the Law of Contagion