Anecdotal Fallacy
definition of Anecdote: (based on anecdotes or hearsay: consisting of or based on secondhand accounts rather than firsthand knowledge or experience or scientific investigation)
Example:
Antonio Danono had researched the purchase of a Volvo and
found multiple studies that agreed that this was a sound automobile to
purchase. Just before he was to go to the lot to buy the Volvo, he decided to
tell a friend of his decision. The friend immediately dismisses the idea of the
Volvo by saying he knows how much trouble his friend had with a Volvo… “He had
trouble with the electrical, he was always in the shop, then the engine, etc. On this one story only, Antonio decides that
buying a Volvo is a bad idea and buys something else.
Example II:
Zulio Hanselvontruffenstauffen was approached by a sales agent about purchasing airline insurance that will pay for survival benefits
should the plane crash. The sales person, stressing how important it is that Zulio’s
family be compensated, pushed the issue. So Zulio purchased the insurance even though he knew
that statistics of planes crashing are rare and all the folks that have purchased
insurance have not had one incident of payouts because the planes they were on
did not crash.
The point to make on this fallacy is that occurs because
someone currently, present and in our face, with little reason or evidence (emotive
or sensational), or a group with the same illogic, effects our psyche in such a
way that we throw away good reason for the anecdotal. It appears that what is
sometimes current, regardless of validity, becomes bigger and more powerful in
our minds than the past and more researched.
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