Sharpshooter of Texas
🧠 Psych - 218/300
Reader,
How are you doing? You can always reply and write directly to me. I’d love to hear.
Today, we are going to learn about Texas’ Sharpshooter Fallacy.
The Texas sharpshooter fallacy is a type of logical fallacy in which someone draws a conclusion based on a set of data points, while ignoring all other relevant data.
It's like a cowboy shooting at a barn door and then drawing a target around the bullet holes after the fact, making it look like they were aiming at a specific spot.
For example, if someone wants to prove that a certain type of diet is healthy, they may only focus on people who have had success with that diet, while ignoring people who have had negative experiences or adverse health effects.
You can support this free newsletter, if you wish to. Get The Psych Handbook which features simple explanations & fun visuals of 150+ biases of psychology.
What do I need to know?
This fallacy occurs when someone selectively chooses data that supports their conclusion, while ignoring any data that contradicts it. This can lead to faulty conclusions and flawed decision-making.
To avoid the Texas sharpshooter fallacy, it is important to consider all relevant data when making conclusions and decisions, and to avoid cherry-picking only the information that supports a preconceived conclusion.