tall woman fallacy 

Offering a single exception to a rule to disprove the general rule. The tall woman fallacy gets its name from people using a single tall woman to "disprove" the fact that men are taller than women.

This fallacy usually comes from misinterpreting a general rule to mean it applies in every single case, e.g. "All men are taller than all women" instead of "Men are, on average, taller than women."

A)
Jack: Men are taller than women.
Jill: That's not true Jack, Mary is 6'3".
Jack: That doesn't disprove the rule. Even when we take Mary and other tall women into account, there are still more tall men than women, and the average height for men will be higher than the average height for women. A few exceptions don't disprove the rule.

B)

Will: More violent crimes are committed by young people than by old people.
Joe: That's not true, I knew a 70 year-old who beat up his wife. Are you saying he didn't break the law?
Will: No Joe, that's the tall woman fallacy. While old people do commit crimes, there are fewer older violent criminals than there are young criminals, and fewer violent crimes committed by old people than by young people.

tall woman fallacy by woman of average height March 21, 2014