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Gambler's Fallacy

The gambler's fallacy is the mistaken belief that if a random event occurs more frequently than normal during a period, it will happen less frequently in the future, and vice versa. In other words, it is mistakenly thinking that past events affect the likelihood of future independent events.

For instance, if a fair coin lands on heads five times in a row, someone might believe that tails is more likely on the next flip to “even things out.” However, coin flips are independent events, so the probability of getting tails is still 50% on each flip, regardless of previous outcomes.

The gambler's fallacy can lead to incorrect predictions and decisions.

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