Hasty generalization

From Freepedia

Hasty generalization, also known as "fallacy of insufficient statistics", "fallacy of insufficient sample", "fallacy of the lonely fact", "leaping to a conclusion", "hasty induction", "law of small numbers" or "secundum quid", is the logical fallacy of reaching an inductive generalization based on too little evidence.

Examples with contradictions

"I loved the hit song, therefore I'll love the album it's on": Fallacious because the album might have one good song and lots of filler.
"This Web site looks OK to me on my computer; therefore, it will look OK on your computer, too": Fallacious because many computers present content differently.
"In my lifetime, there has been a leap year every fourth year; therefore, every fourth year, past, present, and future, is a leap year": Plain untrue.
Since all men are potential rapists, we should instate a tax for all men to compensate the suffering of women in the hands of men. Swedish Feminist Gudrun Schyman argued in the Swedish Parliament that "we have to have a discussion so that men understand that they have a collective financial responsibility" (see Appeal to gender).

An ad absurdum parody of this argument is "Every human being is a potential murderer and should be proactively sanctioned". The reasoning goes as

Strangulation is committed by grabbing one's windpipe and squeezing until suffocation
Strangulation is always a murder
Every human being has two hands
Every human being (with the exception of quadriplegics) has the capability of clenching their fists and squeezing objects
Every human being has thus the capability of grabbing someone on his windpipe and suffocating him to death.
Every human being is therefore capable of strangulation
Every human being is a potential murderer

See also faulty generalization for other fallacies involving generalization.