Imagine that your friend James has just taken up the habit of smoking cigars because he thinks it makes him look cool.You are concerned about the detrimental effects of smoking on his health,and you raise that concern to him.James gets a bit annoyed with your criticism and says "George Burns smoked cigars,and he lived to be 100!" You might point out that a major problem with his "George Burns" argument involves
A)framing.
B)the conjunction rule.
C)sample size.
D)none of these

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

James is basing his argument on a single example (George Burns), which does not provide a representative sample size to make any meaningful conclusions about the effects of cigar smoking on health. This is an example of a sample size fallacy.

Imagine That Your Friend James Has Just Taken Up the Habit