From Mars to Mardi Gras: A Lesson in Generalizations
Carl is making a King Cake for his Mardi Gras party. To make the pastry part of the recipe, he dumps all the ingredients into the bowl in the order listed in the recipe. Before he can mix up the ingredients, his little sister comes along and sticks her finger into the batter. She licks her finger and exclaims, “This is terrible! It tastes like flour! You aren’t making this cake correctly!”
Why is his sister’s claim incorrect?
Carl’s sister is making an incorrect conclusion because the sample she took from the bowl does not represent all the ingredients in the bowl. Since her finger only has flour on it, she assumes that the entire bowl is just flour. She is making a generalization based off of a sample that is not representative of the entire population.
Generalization: A conclusion regarding the population based off of a sample.
Population: The whole group from which a sample is taken.