What is overgeneralization?

Overgeneralization is when you take one thing you know and think it’s true for everything else, even if that’s not the case.

Imagine you’re playing with blocks. You stack up three red blocks, and they fall down because they're wobbly. Now, you might think all red blocks are wobbly and will always fall. But what if the next time you use a red block, it's super strong and stays upright? That’s overgeneralization, taking one experience with red blocks and thinking it applies to all of them.

Say you eat an apple that’s sour, and now you think all apples are sour. But maybe your friend eats a sweet apple and thinks they’re all sweet! That’s overgeneralization too, using one example (one sour apple) to judge every other apple.

It's like when you see one dog chasing your bike and then think every dog will chase your bike. That might not be true, but it happens because you're taking what you know and making a bigger rule out of it, just like with the blocks or apples!