How We Know What Isn't So: The Fallibility of Human Reason in Everyday Life

by Thomas Gilovich

It is the overapplication of representativeness that gets us into trouble. All else is not always equal. Not all librarians are prototypical; Some big effects (e.g., an epidemic) have humble causes (e.g., a virus) and some complex effects (e.g., the alteration of a region’s ecological balance) have simple causes (e.g., the introduction of a single pesticide).