Hasty generalization is one of the most common types of fallacy that is used in commercials. The term hasty generalization refers to a fallacy whereby a conclusion is reached without being logically justified by sufficient evidenced. The conclusion is usually biased and conclusion attained by gathering minute evidence of a subject (Muniz, 2018).
A good example of an advertisement that uses hasty generalization fallacy is that of master card. The advert states that
“There are some things that money can’t buy. For everything else, there’s a MASTERCARD.”
Figure 1. Hasty generalization advert (Schwegel, 2015).
The above MasterCard advert can be categorized an example of a hasty generalization fallacy because the conclusion reached cannot be logically justified. Also, the evidence used to draw the conclusion cannot be applied to the general population. According to the ad, provided one has MasterCard, they have the ability of buying anything, inclusive of the things that money cannot buy. The ad is a fallacy because it fails to take into account the charges of the items or the money that an individual has in the bank.
These are crucial factors that play a significant role in ascertaining whether an individual has the ability of purchasing an item. Deducing from the advert, it is apparent that it generalizes everything insinuating that everything that a person needs can be bought as long as an individual has a MasterCard.
The main danger of this fallacy is that it will lead people into making inaccurate conclusions and poor decisions. The ad misleads people into believing that all their problems can be solved by just having a MasterCard. Also, the fallacy can lead to people making bad judgements. Maybe there are better options to MasterCard, however, with such information, many people, especially the illiterate people will become victims of the fallacy in the advertisement. The ad can be improved by stating some of the things that cannot be bought by money but can be bought by a MasterCard.
References
Muniz, M. J. (2018). Hasty Generalization. Bad Arguments: 100 of the Most Important Fallacies in Western Philosophy, 354-356.
Schwegel, N. (2015). Hasty Generalization Example.
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