fallacy of composition

Noun

fallacy of composition (plural fallacies of composition)

1. A presumption that if something is true of part(s) of a whole, then it is true of the whole itself.
   • A theorist who moves from the putative fact that every shot in a given nonfiction film represents a personal point-of-view to the conclusion that every nonfiction film is a personal vision commits the fallacy of composition.1996 March 29, Noël Carroll, Theorizing the Moving Image, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, →OL, page 229
   • There is a small segment of the psychology literature that effectively commits a fallacy of composition, reasoning that if we can explain individual behavior, then this carries over immediately to the group.2012, “Conclusion: Psychology, Neuroscience, and Economics”, in David K. Levine, editor, Is Behavioral Economics Doomed?: The Ordinary versus the Extraordinary, Cambridge: Open Book Publishers...