Ecological fallacy

The Ecological fallacy is a fallacy in social science, in which, on the basis of aggregate data, to map the characteristics of a collective, is improperly closed on individual data.

"Ecological " here means " collectively " and goes back to the urban ecology of the Chicago School. The term was coined in 1950 by William S. Robinson ( 1913-1996 ).

According to the Colemanschen Bath (macro - micro-macro scheme) correlations between aggregate data variables (macro level) are interpreted as correlations at the individual level (micro level). This often leads to erroneous results. Basically, the ecological fallacy is the consequence of being easy to understand averages are compared, for example, the average age or the average wealth of people instead of the actual distribution of the individual measurements.