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By “reductionism” I mean a general tendency for people to make false assertions, inferences or extrapolations because they assume some situation is based on certain mechanisms or can be modeled in a certain way that is not accurate and fails to take into account other relevant factors.

It sounds a bit vague, but I think it could be an interesting overall study, if any such book exists.

julkarham
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    This is not what "reductionism" conventionally means. That people tend to model things by the simplest means possible is probably an evolutionary adaptation, and there is nothing wrong with it, it is a reasonable necessity due to limited resources. It is, of course, in the nature of simple models to become false when pushed, but it is not because of this tendency that false assertions are a problem. It is in refusing to correct them when needed, in complacency and dogmatism, quite different tendencies. – Conifold May 04 '20 at 05:25
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    Maybe consider rephrasing your question with reference to fallacies, like https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faulty_generalization, https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fallacy_of_the_single_cause. The later is indeed also labeled "causal reductionism" in Wikipedia, but that's not the most common definition of reductionism, and thus misleading. – tkruse May 05 '20 at 15:58

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