Proportionality bias

The proportionality bias is the tendency to assume that big events have big causes. It is a type of cognitive bias and plays an important role in people's tendency to accept conspiracy theories.^[1]^[2] Academic psychologist Rob Brotherton summarises it as “When something big happens, we tend to assume that something big must have caused it”.^[3]

Notes[]

^ Leman PJ, Cinnirella M (2007). "A major event has a major cause: Evidence for the role of heuristics in reasoning about conspiracy theories". Social Psychological Review. 9 (2): 18–28.
^ Buckley, Thea. "Why Do Some People Believe in Conspiracy Theories?". Scientific American. Retrieved 26 July 2020.
^ "Account for Proportionality Bias: Big Events Must Have Big Causes".

v t Biases
Cognitive biases	Actor–observer Acquiescence Ambiguity Anchoring Attentional Attribution Authority Automation Belief Blind spot Choice-supportive Confirmation Compassion fade Congruence Courtesy Cultural Distinction Dunning–Kruger Egocentric Emotional Extrinsic incentives Fading affect Framing Frequency Correspondence Halo effect Hindsight Horn effect Hostile attribution Impact Implicit In-group Mere-exposure effect Negativity Normalcy Omission Optimism Out-group homogeneity Outcome Overton window Precision Present Pro-innovation Response Restraint Self-serving Social comparison Status quo Time-saving Trait ascription von Restorff effect Zero-risk In animals
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