Overgenerality

Taxonomy: Logical Fallacy > Informal Fallacy > Overgenerality

Subfallacy: Hasty Generalization

Example:

As this is the 25th Anniversary of "Thriller" and, Mr. [Michael] Jackson’s worldwide sales have to date exceeded over 750 million units, Mr. Jackson is being recognised for his phenomenal, record-breaking achievements.1

Analysis

Exposition:

There are two types of overgenerality:

  1. Overly-General Concepts: No concept is inherently overly general, but in a particular context of use it may be. For instance, if you were asked to aid in a search, it wouldn't be helpful to be told to look for a "thing". In this context, "thing" is an overly-general concept, since it won't help you to identify the lost object. Overly-general concepts are often used by politicians as a way to avoid commitment to particular policies, which is a type of "doublespeak".
  2. Overly-Broad Generalizations: To generalize is to draw a general conclusion from some evidence. To overgeneralize is to draw an overly-general conclusion that is unwarranted by the evidence. For instance, if I have seen only one swan and it was white, "all swans are white" would be an overgeneralization. Specifically, it would be an instance of the subfallacy of Hasty Generalization.

Exposure:

Overgenerality should not be confused with either vagueness or abstractness:


Analysis of the Example:

This example, taken from a letter written by a publicist for Michael Jackson, is overly general in describing Jackson's supposed sales of 750 million "units". What is a "unit": a record, a song, or some combination of the two? This is the first type of over-generality discussed above in the Exposition, that is, an overly-general concept. Presumably, "unit" was used by the publicist because it allowed for the exaggeration of Jackson's sales and, thus, of his popularity.

A number of news organizations apparently thought that a "unit" was an album, and reported that Jackson had sold 750 million albums. For instance, BBC News claimed that it was a fact that: "Michael Jackson is the third biggest-selling pop act of all time, after The Beatles and Elvis Presley, with album sales of 750 million."2 Thus, the overly-general concept led some news organizations to draw an unwarranted conclusion.


Notes:

  1. Raymone K. Bain, "Letter", King of Pop, 10/31/2006.
  2. "Twelve Facts about Michael Jackson", BBC News, 6/26/2009. See also: