Ella was bullied by one of her classmates on her first day of school. After this incident, she did not talk to anyone else at school. At home, when her mother asked her how she liked her classmates, Ella said, "All my friends are very mean!" Which of the following fallacies best illustrates this scenario?

a. A hasty generalization
b. A false cause
c. An ad hominem argument
d. An either/or fallacy


a. A hasty generalization
In this scenario, Ella is committing a fallacy of hasty generalization. A hasty generalization occurs when a claim is either not supported with evidence or is supported with only one weak example. Enough supporting material must be cited to satisfy the audience that the instances are not isolated or handpicked.

Communication & Mass Media

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Communication & Mass Media