Insignificance

Informal fallacies → Other informal

Insignificance (or minor cause) is when you make a small or unimportant thing sound like the main cause or the main reason. You pick one factor—often vivid or easy to blame—and ignore larger causes. The fallacy is to overstate the role of a minor factor. The remedy is to ask: what are all the relevant factors, and how big is each? One typo might have mattered, but usually there are bigger reasons.

Examples

  • She didn't get the job because she had one typo on her CV.

  • The team lost because of that one missed penalty.

  • The project failed because of the weather.

  • He's unhappy because he didn't get the promotion.

  • Sales fell because of the new packaging.

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