Fallacy of the single cause
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The fallacy of the single cause, also known as joint effect or causal oversimplification, is a logical fallacy of causation that occurs when it is assumed that there is one, simple cause of an outcome when in reality it may have been caused by a number of only jointly sufficient causes.
Often after a tragedy it is asked, "What was the cause of this?" Such language implies that there is one cause, when instead there were probably a large number of contributing factors. However, having produced a list of several contributing factors, it may be worthwhile to look for the strongest of the factors, or a single cause underlying several of them.
For instance, after a school shooting, editorialists debate whether it was caused by the shooter's parents, TV violence, stress on students, Hollywood or the accessibility of guns. In fact many different causes including some of those may all have necessarily contributed.
What caused the September 11, 2001 attacks is another prominent topic of discussion that may invoke this fallacy.
The fallacy was portrayed in an episode of The Simpsons, "Much Apu About Nothing", in which Apu takes a citizenship test:
- Proctor: All right, here's your last question. What was the cause of the Civil War?
- Apu: Actually, there were numerous causes. Aside from the obvious schism between the abolitionists and the anti-abolitionists, there were economic factors, both domestic and inter--
- Proctor: Wait, wait... just say slavery.
- Apu: Slavery it is, sir.
Causal oversimplification is a specific kind of false dilemma where conjoint possibilities are ignored. In other words, the possible causes are assumed to be "A or B or C" when "A and B and C" or "A and B and not C" (etc.) are not taken into consideration.
