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title: The Narrative Fallacy
created: 2025-10-19T06:37:33
modified: 2025-10-19T17:23:33
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coined by Nassim Nicholas Taleb

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is the human tendency to create simple, causal _stories_ to explain complex _events_, even when there is little evidence, leading to poor [decision-making](decision-making.md).

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This fallacy makes us oversimplify reality.

Our brains like to “make sense” of the random chaos around us, so the stories provide a sense of calm.

Therefore, the original stories are often the ones that gets preserved and deeply entrenched. New information is massaged to fit that story, or rejected if it doesn’t.