Muhammad Wang fallacy

The Muhammad Wang fallacy (also known as the Goomba fallacy) is an informal fallacy in which a collection of individuals is mistakenly treated as if it were a single, internally consistent entity. This leads to the false conclusion that the group or dataset holds contradictory beliefs or characteristics, when the apparent contradiction is explained by distinct subgroups holding differing beliefs or characteristics.

A visual example of the fallacy, featuring a teacher and two students.

Examples

• Claiming that "Muhammad Wang" must be a common full name as it pairs the most common first name in the world, Muhammad, with the most common surname, Wang. The fallacy comes from the fact that Muhammad is usually only found among Arabic communities, while Wang is usually only found among Chinese communities, making the full name exceptionally uncommon.
• Claiming that "Gamers hate microtransactions but keep making microtransaction purchases" overlooks the fact that the critics and purchasers are often different groups of players.
• Stating that "Americans support gun control but own the most guns in the world, Americans are contradictory." This overlooks the fact that the types of Americans who own many guns are less likely to support gun control, and vice versa.

See also

• Goomba fallacy
• List of fallacies
• Error
• Jumping to conclusions