Overgeneralization

Overgeneralizations are a sort of logical fallacies, which are failures of reasoning. So, that’s what overgeneralizations are, failures of reasoning.

More specifically, we might define them as when authors make claims that are so broad that they cannot be proven or disproved.

1. Which of the following are overgeneralizations?

My cat loves people.

Acorns grow on oak trees.

All birds can fly.

Facebook has a blue logo.

Question 1 of 2

2. Which sentence is the example of overgeneralization?

1. Red roses cannot survive long winters, because in my garden two red roses died over a long winter.

2. For thousands of years, red roses have been associated with passion and love. In Roman and Greek mythology, the red rose is often linked to the Goddess of Love, Aphrodite.

Sentence nr 1

Sentence nr 2

Question 2 of 2

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Video Transcription

When authors use an overgeneralization, they usually want to accomplish one (1) or two (2) motives.

The first motive is the creation of an allusion of their authority. Authors may do so to make it look like they’re having authority, whereas, in fact, they don’t have that.

Their second motive could be to sway the reader’s opinion. They may accomplish this by using broad, sensational language.

So, when an author writes a persuasive essay, she or he can utilize overgeneralization for swaying the reader’s opinion.

So let’s look at an example of overgeneralization here:

“The whole world knows he’s is a terrible teacher.”

Here, our author is making an assumption that’s pretty hard to be believed. Sure, it could well be that a lot of people indeed have a pretty negative view of that teacher. Continued under the video.

(Continued) To claim, though, that the entire world is feeling this way, is definitely an exaggeration. In our example, the author claims consensus when there is actually none.

When readers spot overgeneralizations like the one above, they should get skeptical about the author’s argument because authors often try to hide unsupported or weak assertions behind some sort of authoritative language.

So again, an overgeneralization is like a logical fallacy. Overgeneralization is a failure of reasoning.

We can say that in overgeneralization, the author makes a claim that is so broad that it cannot be proven or disproved. When authors use overgeneralizations, they usually want to accomplish an allusion of authority or sway their readers’ opinions.

Last Updated on September 13, 2024.