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The article says it is the ecological fallacy. Google "ecological fallacy example" and you'll find lots. A simple example: take a group of 3 people. One has an
by freddie_mercury 8y ago
The article says it is the ecological fallacy. Google "ecological fallacy example" and you'll find lots. A simple example: take a group of 3 people. One has an IQ of 200. The other 2 have an IQ of 50. The average IQ is 100. So the group is "average IQ" but if you pick a person at random they are likely to be substantially below average IQ. Examples get substantially more complicated in reality.
- cosmic_ape 8y agoI see, thanks. I think they should have just said distributions are skewed, and skewed differently, if thats what they mean.
- Baeocystin 8y agoUsing the term 'ecological fallacy' does exactly that. It is a specific, formal term. A common subtype is called Simpson's Paradox, and that comes up frequently as well. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simpson%27s_paradox https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simpson%27s_paradox