Question

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michael

name of fallacy, if a little is good more is better

What is the name of the fallacy where people extrapolate that if a small change is good a bigger change must be better?

For example

A dash of salt in my soup makes its taste better, therefore, a cup of salt in my soup will make it unbelievably delicious.

Or

Giving your child a little freedom to make mistakes and understand the consequences will help them develop, therefore placing no rules, limits, and boundaries on your child is developmentally even healthier

We often see this couple with economic deregulation or personal freedom claims nowadays, but it seems to be a fundamental mistake ubiquitous in how people think about most things.

I would call this something like the monotonicity, extreme or extrapolation fallacy

asked on Monday, Feb 04, 2019 05:02:31 PM by michael

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Answers

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mchasewalker
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Hi Michael,

I'm not seeing a fallacy here. It's either a matter of personal taste or potentially a personality disorder.
answered on Tuesday, Feb 05, 2019 10:06:58 AM by mchasewalker

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Bo Bennett, PhD
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This borders on black and white thinking (cognitive bias but also a fallacy when used in an argument) where one would think X is either good or bad... and that's it. They do not apply nuance to realize that while a little of X is good, a lot of X might be bad. As Michael (Chase Walker) suggests, the examples you list are quite extreme and could indicate something more serious than fallacious reasoning or normal cognitive biases.
answered on Tuesday, Feb 05, 2019 10:16:30 AM by Bo Bennett, PhD

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