Miranda tosses a fair coin consecutively five times and gets heads each time. Wh

Question

Miranda tosses a fair coin consecutively five times and gets heads each time. When her son Shane asks her about the probability of getting tails on the next (sixth) toss, Miranda says the following: “This is a fair coin, so I should toss heads approximately 50 percent of the time. Because I have tossed heads 100 percent of the time for my first five tosses, then the probability of me tossing tails on the sixth toss must be greater than 50 percent.” Miranda’s statement is an example of the ________ fallacy.

Explanation / Answer

Option 3: Gambler's Fallacy

Explanation: A fallacy is a false belief which is widely held by people. In the gambler's fallacy, it is falsely believed that if an event happened more frequently (or less frequently) in the past, it will happen less frequently (or more frequently) in the future.

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