A committee member reads that 20 percent of college students default on government-guaranteed loans, then concludes that "college students are irresponsible." This illustrates which error in reasoning?
A) overgeneralizing
B) concluding that because two things are related, one caused the other
C) attacking the source instead of the idea
D) posing a false either-or situation
E) making an incomplete comparison

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

The committee member is overgeneralizing the behavior of a subset of college students (those who default on loans) to all college students, which is an error in reasoning.

A Committee Member Reads That 20 Percent of College Students