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A question for you learned editors. Is it also an example of this fallacy to say "My cohort has a 20% chance of suffering a heart attack in the next 10 years, therefore I have a 20% chance?" Callophylla (talk) 02:08, 17 March 2010 (UTC)
I believe the answer is, you can assume the best estimate of your chance is 20%, *IF YOU HAVE NO OTHER INFORMATION*. If, however, you know things, like your family history of heart attacks, your own personal blood pressure, etc., etc., you could (eg., using something like Bayesian updating of your priors) alter that estimate to a more accurate one, tailored for you specifically.
If you choose to ignore extra information to stick with the less informative 20% estimate, then I would say you are making that fallacy. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.52.124.254 (talk) 16:11, 24 July 2019 (UTC)
I wonder if there isn't also a "Fallacy of illicit transference", in that the fallacy of composition and the fallacy of division can be used simultaneously, defining the instance of the class as representative of the class, and the class as definitive (?) of each and every instance. See Drawing Hands for a visual metaphor of the process I'm trying to describe. —Preceding unsigned comment added by TheLastWordSword (talk • contribs) 16:52, 6 April 2015 (UTC)