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Malcolm has been watching a roulette-style game at a local charity bazaar. The game has only ten numbers on the wheel, and every number except 8 has come up as a winner during the last 15 minutes. Malcolm decides to bet $10 on number 8, because it eventually has to come up. In this case, Malcolm is showing evidence of…

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User Drakonli
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1 Answer

4 votes

Answer:

Malcolm is showing evidence of gambler's fallacy.

This is the tendency to think previous results can affect future performance of an event that is fundamentally random.

Explanation:

Since each round of the roulette-style game is independent of each other. The probability that 8 will come up at any time remains the same, equal to the probability of each number from 1 to 10 coming up. That it has not come up in the last 15 minutes does not increase or decrease the probability that it would come up afterwards.

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User Hadronzoo
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