Texas sharpshooter
cherry-picking data to fit a predetermined conclusion
Texas sharpshooter in a sentence
“Painting a target around bullet holes—finding patterns after the fact.”
Origin of Texas sharpshooter
From a joke about a marksman who shoots first, then draws the target
Related Words
post hoc
assuming causation because one thing followed another
cum hoc
assuming causation because two things occur together
slippery slope
claiming one event will inevitably lead to extreme consequences
false cause
incorrectly identifying the cause of an effect
single cause
oversimplifying by attributing an effect to one cause
regression fallacy
failing to account for natural statistical variation