A person reads a study that finds police agencies in the South are more likely to have excessive force complaints filed against them. From this study, the person concludes that Southern police officers are more likely to use excessive force. This is an example of ______.

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Quizplus · Accepted Answer

An ecological fallacy occurs when one makes inferences about individuals based solely on aggregate data for a group. In this case, the person is concluding that individual officers are more likely to use excessive force based on data about police agencies as a whole.

A Person Reads a Study That Finds Police Agencies in the South