Base Rate Neglect
Base Rate Fallacy
If presented with related base rate information (i.e. generic, general information) and specific information (information pertaining only to a certain case), the mind tends to ignore the former and focus on the latter.
Origin
Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky established the bias empirically in a landmark 1973 study published in Psychological Review. Their experiments showed that participants systematically ignored statistical base rates when forming probability judgments, instead relying on how well a description matched a stereotype — a mental shortcut they termed the representativeness heuristic. The fallacy joined the broader body of cognitive bias research that Kahneman and Tversky pioneered throughout the 1970s and for which Kahneman received the 2002 Nobel Prize in Economics.