The tendency to think that all African Americans are likely to be great athletes because LeBron James is such a great athlete illustrates the illusory correlation.

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This is an example of illusory correlation, which refers to the tendency to perceive a relationship between two variables (in this case, race and athletic ability) even when none exists, or when the relationship is much weaker than we believe it to be. This bias often emerges when we encounter rare or highly salient events (like LeBron James' success as a black athlete) and then overgeneralize from those events to larger groups or populations.

The Tendency to Think That All African Americans Are Likely