The Oversimplification fallacy

The oversimplification fallacy pertains to finding a simple solution to an answer that clearly requires more attention in order for the problem to be solved. For example, according to marketwatch.com, Healthcare.gov is a website that needed major corrections. In fact, theatlantic.com labeled Healthcare.gov as the website as the worst website in America. Market watch felt as if the "launching" of the website was somewhat messy. Market watch also felt like Healthcare.gov does not have the right "tooling". And since Donald Trump is running for president he serves as someone who has a major say when asked about this problem. When Trump was asked how could Healthcare.gov could be fixed, he simply responded by saying.. "We have a 5 billion dollar website. I have so many websites... I hire people." "They do a website, it costs me three dollars". Clearly, Trump made it seemed as if he had such a simple solution knowing that more knowledge and work ethic is required to fix such a problem. Here is a video of Donald Trump expressing his blasphemous quote that brought the media to an uproar.

Here in this article, it describes Trump and his "5 billion dollar website". Of course, viewers of this website had many controversial statements and opinions. Some statements were bias towards Trump, some not so much. The comments that people wrote are written here.


Examples Of Oversimplification

Oversimplification is thinking that there is only one particular simple solution to something that needs more logic and reasoning to be solved. It is as if someone is self attributing something to a single cause. Athiesm.about.com uses an example to follow up with this statement. The example the website uses is " Education today isn't as good as it used to be- obviously, our teachers are not doing there jobs." Now, possibly in some scenarios it might actually be the teachers fault for their students academic performances. However, that is NOT the only probable solution to that scenario. Some students may not comprehend the material the teacher is providing. Some students might be blatantly disrespectful to their teachers and may not pay attention at all. It is not always the teacher's fault that their students are not excelling in the subjects that they are trying to teach.


The oversimplification fallacy can be defined in a variety of ways. My.ilstu.edu defines the fallacy by using an example. The website states the fallacy as " A person draws a conclusion about a large group based on experience with only a few members of the group." They then define that example with an even more specific example. The example they use is " A fan says, "I had a chance to chat with Coach after the game and he seemed very nice. It is wonderful how athletic coaches are so approachable." In this example they are generalizing athletic coaches saying that they are all approachable. This is not the case, some coaches are mean and do not like to be bothered. Infact, in this article a father explains how his ten-year-old son is being bullied by his coach. This goes to show that not all coaches are nice and approachable.