Switzerland is 48 percent Protestant. Heidi Gilsing is a Swiss. Therefore, Heidi Gilsing is 48 percent Protestant. Which fallacy is committed in this argument?
AHasty generalisation
BFallacy of composition ✓ Correct
CAd hominem
DBegging the question
Correct answer: (B) Fallacy of composition
Explanation
The reasoning is flawed because a statistical feature of the whole is forced onto a single member.
Being 48 percent Protestant is a property of Switzerland taken as an entire population.
Heidi is only one individual, of whom being 48 percent Protestant makes no sense.
Transferring an aggregate property to a part of that aggregate is illegitimate.
Confusing a collective trait with an individual one in this part and whole way is the fallacy of composition.
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